


The Cowboy and the Mustang

by PiratePlume



Category: All Elite Wrestling, Being The Elite (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, also theres a secret but im not gonna tell you what it is you have to read it and find out, fans of absolute fluff will love the soft cowboy adam page, fans of horsemanship will love the in depth description of bonding with a horse, if you dont like those things this fic is not for you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2020-12-15 21:46:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21025223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PiratePlume/pseuds/PiratePlume
Summary: While on a road trip into mid-northern Montana, Jane takes a quick walk with the intent to stretch her legs before she gets back on the road.  She stumbles across an arena where a gentle cowboy is working to earn the trust of a curious but wild young mustang.





	1. The Bond

“We just need to stop for gas real quick,” Kate was squinting at the road signs up ahead, scanning for the off-ramp they’d need for a gas station, “and we’ll be golden for another five-hundred or so miles. Aha!” Triumphant, she clicked the blinker, switching lanes until she could take the proper off-ramp.

The town they’d stopped off at was charmingly small. Nestled in mountainous Montana, the streets were shrouded in shade cast off tall, healthy douglas-fir trees. A few small homes could be caught nestled through the trees as you drove past, but they were gone in a blur. Jane realized nearly all of them had wood-fenced corrals on the property and livestock, too. She grinned. This was exactly what she expected the Montana mountains to be like, as if it leaped from the pages of those sappy, horribly cliche cowboy romance books she used to read when she was younger.

They pulled into the two-pump gas station and Jane popped the door open, hopping out of the passenger’s side as Kate prepared to start pumping.

“I’m going to stretch my legs for a few minutes if that’s cool?”

“Yeah, I need to go to the bathroom anyways. I’ll park the car over there,” she pointed at a lot beside the convenience store, “after the tank’s full.”

“Awesome!” Jane tucked her phone into her pocket and turned on her boot’s heel, starting to walk aimlessly down the road just for the sake of walking. They’d been in the car a little over nine hours, traveling since they’d woken up and left the hotel room that morning and only stopping once, very briefly over five hours ago. 

Jane and Kate had met in veterinary school, where they were both studying to be equine veterinarians. They’d become best friends and eventually realized they both had a dream to drive across the mid-western United States, stopping wherever they wanted on a whim and with no real destination in mind. Next year would be their final year of school together, so they’d decided to spend the summer before fall semester doing what they’d dreamed of doing, together.

“Hold up boy!” A low, reassuring voice shouted out gently, startling Jane from her thoughts. She blinked, glancing to her left. A cowboy stood in the middle of an arena with his large hands in the air, palms out in surrender to a stocky bay colt who was heaving heavy breaths as he glared under his forelock. She could make out the white freeze-brand in the colt’s neck. He’d been a wild mustang seized off his home range by the BLM and sold at auction.

Curiously narrowing her eyes, Jane turned toward the scene and took quiet steps over the dried, fallen pine-needle floor toward the wood-post of the arena fence. Hands in her pockets, she studied the scene in front of her.

The cowboy was handsome in a Romantic way, as if he could be on the cover of one of those very novels she’d thought of earlier. He had fluffy, gold-blond hair that fell in a soft cloud on his shoulders and caught the sunlight with enough beauty to make her breathless. He had a low brow and a defined nose, and a soft vulnerability about him that was comforting, even though he was a stranger. A fine, well-kept blond beard made his gentle face just rugged enough to be complimentary. He wore fitted Wrangler jeans, worn leather cowboy boots, a belt with a flashing, big silver belt buckle, and a flannel button-up shirt in checkered blues and whites. A cowboy hat sat on those curls, just barely containing them and helping keep his eyes out of the sunlight.

He was concentrated on the horse he was in the pen with. He didn’t take his eyes off the colt, and even murmured in a gentle breath, “Easy boy, easy…” He hadn’t even noticed he’d gained an audience.

The mustang – a rich, chocolate bay with deep black points and a small white snip on his dark muzzle – struck the sand in the ring, digging a small trench. He tossed his head, upsetting his rich, black mane over his neck, snorted again and stepped back. His tail swatted his muscled hindquarters and he turned, giving the cowboy one last eyeful before trotting away and putting space between them again. Whatever the cowboy had done had made the mustang scold him for it.

Jane watched the slight tension leave the cowboy’s shoulders and he lowered his hands slow, hooking his thick thumbs into his pockets. He was still watching the colt, who’d stopped by the fence post a few yards in front of him and was gently nosing it, pretending he wasn’t watching the cowboy. He was very clearly doing just that. Jane’s mouth slowly melted into a smile. The mustang was curious about the cowboy and wanted to trust him, but he was telling him it wasn’t going to be that easy. The cowboy was telling the mustang he understood that, he wouldn’t expect it any other way, and he’d be there when the colt was ready to trust him. All without saying a word.

It was in their subtle body language. The way the mustang kept his side slightly turned in to the cowboy and flicked his ears with interest wherever the man moved. The way the cowboy glanced away from the mustang, scuffing his boots in the sand and pretending that was more interesting to watch instead. A curious horse felt sneaky if a person’s eyes weren’t on it, and that’s just the opportunity the cowboy was giving the colt. Jane held her breath, wondering if the colt was going to take it.

The mustang’s tail flicked gently back and forth before he jerked his chin gently toward the cowboy and turned, moving almost aggressively, testing the cowboy’s commitment to his indifference. But the cowboy didn’t jump at the sudden movement or even turn his head toward the colt. He glanced away slow, up into the towering pines and squinted, pretending to watch the Steller’s Jay that sat on a branch and bobbed its black-mohawk head. The mustang swayed, leaning his weight forward as if he was going to walk, and then thinking again before leaning back. His ears were still pointed on the cowboy.

Come on, come on… Jane wanted to say, but kept her lips firmly shut so as not to speak and disrupt this almost magical moment.

One step. Two.

The colt’s wild-worn hooves left soft tracks as he inched slowly closer and closer to the cowboy, who was looking back down at his boots. Jane saw a smile twitch at the corner of his lips, but he was holding himself together and trying to maintain a calm, neutral front.

Another step. Another. Surely, he could feel the colt’s hot breath as he huffed softly, nostrils flared with his neck stretched, trying to smell the cowboy without being too close. If there were any sudden movements the colt would spook, this moment would be broken, and they’d have to start from the beginning again. The cowboy was doing his best to stay perfectly still, clearly concentrated and listening to every sense that could grab a hold of the colt and tell him exactly where he was and what he was doing.

The colt leaned in close enough that he rubbed his muzzle over the soft material of the cowboy’s flannel shirt. He snorted and did it again, this time with intent. He drew closer and closer until he no longer needed to stretch to touch his muzzle against the cowboy’s shirt. In fact, he lifted his head and gently rested it on the cowboy’s shoulders.

That’s when the cowboy broke into a smile that lit up his entire face in a way that nearly made her heart stop. The joy was so pure it pushed his cheeks into his eyes and gently crinkled them at the edge. He turned gingerly in place and the colt lifted his head but didn’t step away. He waited for the cowboy to face him.

“Hey buddy,” the cowboy said as if greeting an old friend and lifted a wide palm to gently run over the colt’s broad face. The colt nodded his head as if to show the cowboy he wanted to be pet a little firmer, and the cowboy laughed. “Pushy, pushy.” His fingernails curled and he gently scratched the colt’s short chocolate brown hair on his forehead, face, and the bridge of his muzzle.

This was a different scene than just a few moments ago, and she imagined it was even more different than before she’d come across them. The cowboy’s perseverance had paid off and given the curious, wild young horse the right to choose whether he wanted a human’s company. Horses, naturally herd creatures, didn’t often want to be alone when given the choice. Especially one like the bay, who’d been wild and always run alongside his family.

With a final pat to the colt’s thick neck, running gently over the white freeze brand, the cowboy told the colt they were done for the day. He turned and walked away, but soon there were the steady plods of hoof beats following. The cowboy grinned again and glanced over his shoulder at the colt who was trailing in his path. He shook his head, disturbing those pretty blond curls just slightly, and turned back around again. 

“Now I can’t get rid of you, huh?” It was said fondly.

He didn’t notice Jane until he was already outside the arena and had latched the gate. He’d glanced away from the colt and turned toward his left, where she stood just a few feet away. He jolted slightly and blinked, surprised.

“Ah, howdy miss.” He reached up and pinched the bridge of his cowboy hat, giving it a gentle dip of respect.

“I’m sorry,” Jane said, and felt her stomach tense and her breath feel stuck in her lungs. She hadn’t been able to see how blue and gentle his eyes were from where she’d stood or just how nicely his thick, solid ranch-man's body filled out his clothes. “I um,” she blinked and realized she was staring. She gave her head a small jerk back and forth to shake her brain up and set it right again. “My friend and I stopped for gas and I needed to walk, we’ve been in the car since Idaho Falls and I was feeling a little cramped. I didn’t mean to spy on you or anything, I was just… the way you were communicating with that colt, it was breathtaking.” She felt really, really stupid and closed her mouth fast, her cheeks starting to burn. She knew she had to be the brightest shade of red.

The cowboy’s blue eyes fell to the floor and his smile curled wide. It looked like he had to work to keep it from spreading too far. Wait… was he blushing too? She could barely tell on account of his beard and the shadow his cowboy hat cast across his face, but she swore she could see the faintest hint of pink.

“Thank you miss.” He spoke with a humbled, country accent and pulled those eyes back up to hers. 

“So, who’s your friend?” She asked, jerking her head toward the colt in the arena, who was watching them. 

“Don’t know yet,” he said, giving the colt a glance and smiling back at her. “They tell me their name when they’re ready.”

“They tell you their name?” She crossed her arms over her chest and arched a brow but couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “So, you’re telling me you can talk to horses?” 

He laughed and it was a warm, comfortable sound. Like a fire you could curl up to, wrapped in a big fluffy blanket, while snow fell in lazy slow flakes outside the window.

“No, not that. I just mean sometimes I’ll be working with the horse and the name will just come to me. Sometimes I’ll see something and think of them and realize that’s who they are, or they’ll show me more and more of a personality and it’ll remind me of something else.” He shook his head and blew a semi-amused sigh out his lips. “I sound like I’m crazy, don’t I?”

“Not at all,” Jane said quickly, shaking her head. “You listen to them.”

“Yeah,” he agreed soft, his blue eyes on her. “I’m Adam, by the way. Should have said that earlier.” He smiled sheepish, as if he was embarrassed he’d just now realized he hadn’t introduced himself. He moved close enough to extend his hand and Jane glanced at it, noticing how small hers appeared in comparison as she slipped it into his. He gave her a firm shake and pulled his hand back.

It fit him, somehow. Adam, created from the earth.

“I’m Jane.”

“So… you said you haven’t stopped driving since Idaho?” He kept talking, asking her a question that’d keep her there. Her heart raced a little faster, thinking that he didn’t want her to leave so soon.

“Idaho Falls. We left from Boise this morning.”

“Oh,” he said, and cleared his throat. “You and your beau?”

“Oh, no!” Jane shook her head with a smile, completely missing that he’d almost seemed disappointed when he thought she had a partner. “My best friend Kate and me. We’re both studying at university to be equine veterinarians and next year’s our last year, so we decided to do a road trip together before fall semester starts.”

“Oh!” He said and smiled broad again, nodding his head. “That’s really cool.” His tone was genuine, expression open. “So are you planning on staying anywhere nearby or–”

Before he could ask his question, they were interrupted by a sharp, loud car horn honking. They both jumped and glanced toward the road a few yards off and saw Kate in the car, her window down and waving her arm to beckon Jane back toward the car.

“Jane! Come on!”

Jane wanted to scream. She knew they had a tight schedule to get to where they needed to go at the end of the night before they went stir crazy from being on the road too long, but did it have to be right then? She’d been certain Adam was trying to figure out if she was going to be somewhere close by. Why would he want to know that unless he wanted to see her more? Jane gave Kate a look, letting her know she’d interrupted something, and immediately saw the guilt flash across Kate’s face.

“I’m sorry,” Jane said as she turned back toward Adam. Everything inside her was wailing dramatically, hating the words that were going to have to come out of her mouth next. “We’re on a really tight schedule…” She took a step, hating it as she forced herself to start to turn away.

“Jane, wait,” he said, and his voice was urgent, but gentle. He reached out and his wide, warm, work-calloused hand wrapped around hers again. His thumb stroked her skin and he looked a little breathless when she looked from their clasped hands and into his face. “I, uh,” the tips of his ears faintly reddened, but he didn’t let go of her hand and she didn’t pull it away. “If you were going to be around tonight, it’s Saturday night and around six in the evening I sometimes wind up down at Harry’s Bar in town. I’d like to buy you a drink and maybe get to know you a little better, if you’d like that too.”

She could see his nervous hopefulness clear as day, and it endeared her to him immediately. Where had this adoring, sweet, handsome cowboy come from if not her dreams? The fact that he was genuinely interested in her, enough to ask her to stay so he could see her again, nearly blew her mind.

Jane took a step back, and another, until his hand gently dropped hers. She turned around, tossing ideas through her mind, weighing options and wondering how mad Kate would be if their plans took a slight detour. They’d said they wanted to stop wherever their heart told them to stop, hadn’t they? Jane met Kate’s eyes and saw she was smiling. Jane matched that smile and stopped, turning to look at Adam.

“Hey, Adam?”

He looked at her.

“I think your colt told me his name is Whiskey.”

“That so?” He asked, grinning.

“Yeah, and that’s what you can have ready tonight when I meet you at Harry’s for that drink.”

Adam’s smile was so wide, it showed a pretty row of teeth. It made Jane’s heart feel like it skipped a beat.

“I look forward to it, Jane.” He tipped his hat, and his smile turned a little softer, a little fuller of the wonder he had in his eyes for her. Her name had never sounded more wonderful than it did in that warm country baritone.

“Me too, Adam.”

The colt she’d said was named Whiskey snorted and bobbed his head, watching her from where he stood in the arena beside Adam. She imagined it was a gesture of encouragement.

(to be continued…)


	2. High Risks Birth High Reward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane’s decided to carpe that diem and linger in the small Montana town for a night, intent on meeting the handsome cowboy Adam Page for drinks at the local bar. Their already complicated relationship gets even more so.

Harry’s Bar was the only place open passed five o’clock in the evening on a weekday in the tiny Montana town they were stopped in. The heavy, big wood doors were propped open to help let some cool, fresh air into the packed inside. Laughter, music and general chatter spilled from within bathed in yellow light. It tried to touch the few groups of patrons who’d ducked outside for a smoke and laughed and took pauses as they sucked in deep breaths and poured smoke up into the sky.

As Jane and Kate made their way down the sidewalk toward the open doors, one of the men smoking reached to pinch the brim of his white cowboy hat and dipped his head respectfully. He was handsome enough for Kate’s eyes to linger, and she wore a smile as mischievous as his quickly became. She lifted her hand and gave her fingers a little wave at him before turning away and walking with Jane into the bar.

“I don’t know how you do that so effortlessly.”

“Do what?”

“Wrap men around your finger with just a look. It’s like a superpower.”

Kate laughed, but Jane could tell she was flattered by the compliment. She was wild and adventurous, far more so than Jane, and often thrived on playing games with the men who tried their luck with her. Jane wondered if Kate would ever actually find someone captivating enough to keep her interest for long. She moved through men like she was going through seasons, never completely satisfied with who she found.

“The way that handsome blond-haired cowboy was watching you earlier, I’d say you have a bit of that superpower yourself.” Kate teased as they sidled up to the bar and Jane blushed immediately, still unable to believe she’d somehow caught his attention enough for him to ask her out for a drink. Jane turned away from the bar, scanning the crowd to see if she could see Adam anywhere. They’d run a little late. It was already a half-hour past when he’d said he’d be here. What if he thought she’d decided not to come and left?

“You know how bad I am with this kind of stuff,” Jane said, frowning as she failed to spot him among the crowd, “you know how atrocious some of those dates you’ve forced me to go on have been.”

Kate made a small, sympathetic murmur of agreement.

“This was weird Kate,” Jane said, shaking her head and glancing back at her friend. Thankfully on the opposite side of the bar from the juke box and dance floor, the girls didn’t need to yell at one another to have a conversation. “I’ve never felt like this before with any guy I’ve been with.” She blinked and met Kate’s eyes. “It’s a little scary.”

“Okay buttercup,” Kate said, taking a breath and reaching out to comfortingly rub Jane’s shoulders, “I think you might be close to spinning out about this and ruining something great for yourself. It’s scary, yes, but it’s also exciting, right? We said this trip was going to help us learn something about ourselves, didn’t we? You owe it to yourself to at least have a drink with him and see where the night takes you. If you wind up going home with him, well… we can call this a huge success.”

“Wait, aren’t you going to stay here with me?”

“No! Besides,” Kate jerked her chin over Jane’s shoulder, “handsome cowboy dead ahead.”

“What?” Jane asked and turned to look. Adam was walking toward her, through the crowd. As soon as their eyes met, he lit up in a smile that made her heart race. She looked back and saw Kate ducking through the crowd, making her way toward a cowboy lingering near the dance floor. Kate winked and grinned, to which Jane rolled her eyes and glanced back at Adam as he approached.

He was wearing a vintage western style long-sleeve button-up, pitch black with bold, shiny gold embroidery. A large gold belt buckle held his leather belt closed, and she imagined when he sat it would bite gently into the soft fat on his stomache. The belt was strapped through a pair of perfectly fitted black Wrangler jeans and the ensemble was completed with a black cowboy hat on his let-down blond curls and black-dyed ostrich leather boots. 

Damn. The man knew how to dress to impress. Jane suddenly worried her boho-style, flowy white and floral print dress with her brown leather cowgirl boots wasn’t enough. If she’d known she was going to be meeting an attractive cowboy for a date, she might have thought twice about what outfits she needed to pack before she started this road trip.

“Jane, you look… amazing.” His country drawl stalled for a moment as astonishment warmed his tone. He hesitated with his hand, it’d been clear he wanted to slide it along her hip with familiarity, as if they’d been dating for ages, and pull her in to press her body along his. But he remembered how much they were practically strangers and stopped instead, letting the flicker of want to play out across his face. They shared a hug that was all too brief instead and smiled shyly at each other.

“No! You look, I mean,” Jane waved her hand up and down him, “Wow.” Could she sound any more stupid? This was what she’d meant when she told Kate she didn’t have what she had with men. Kate would have said something suave enough to knock Adam off his feet.

Adam grinned anyways and managed to somehow look a little bashful, which only endeared Jane to him more. “I’m sorry I’m late by the way,” he began, brows dipping further inward. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long?”

“Oh! No, I wasn’t. Kate and I were running a little behind anyways, so it kind of worked out.”

“Alright! Come on, let me buy you that whiskey I promised you.”

Adam stepped up at the bar and slammed the flat of his palm against the bar top, drawing the attention of the bartender who’d been distracted joking around with a few other patrons.

“Adam! Let me get your beer,” the bartender said with a grin, happy to see Adam, and turned to grab a glass.

“Actually – wait, Wade, instead of the usual, can I get two glasses and a bottle of… hell, whatever whiskey you’d recommend.”

“Oh? I can’t remember the last time you drank with anyone other than yourself. Which sucker did you offer to buy booze for tonight?” Wade asked and swept his eyes over to Jane who was standing beside Adam. Something seemed to click, and his gaze flashed a little wider back on Adam. “Oh… Oh, alright. Sure Adam.” He turned, fighting a smile as he went to fetch them glasses and a bottle of whiskey.

Why did Adam always drink alone? Why was it such a surprise for the bartender to see him with her? Jane glanced toward Adam’s profile with a gently confused frown across her brow, but he didn’t turn toward her or say anything. She decided it must be a topic he didn’t want to discuss.

After getting the glasses and bottle, they found a secluded booth toward the back of the bar, tucked away from the music and the dance floor where they could drink and talk with some privacy. Adam poured a splash of deep, golden whiskey into each glass and handed hers before lifting his own.

“We should say cheers to something.”

“Alright,” Jane agreed, frowning, “cheers to…Whiskey, the horse that brought us together.” 

“Actually,” Adam lifted a finger from his glass and pointed it at her, “he told me his name, and it isn’t Whiskey.”

“Oh no?” Jane grinned. “What did he tell you his name was?”

“Lucky.” Adam replied, and there was a bit of softness there. “We both figured he must be my good luck charm if the same day I got him and started working him was the day you showed up.”

Jane’s cheeks were warm as she glanced at the cowboy sitting across from her. A smile turned the corner of her lips before she softly decreed, “Cheers to random moments that lead us to something unexpectedly wonderful.”

Adam was smiling too, and he raised his glass toward hers, clinking them gently. “Cheers.”

After they’d each taken a sip and admired the smooth depth of the whiskey – Adam had waved his hand at Wade and complimented his choice– they fell into easy conversation. At first it was the basic stuff. Jane learned Adam had grown up in this town but moved away when he went to college. He’d come back a few years ago to be close to his parents again, and for a moment he went a little quiet, and Jane suspected that wasn’t the only reason he’d decided to come home. She wondered what could have happened to him. 

Before she had the opportunity to think about prying further, Adam had turned a new question on her, wondering where she was from. Jane had told Adam she was from Oregon. They talked about the mountain, the forests, how she’d come to love horses and how he’d come to love them; Adam had been raised around horses, his father had tamed wild horses just like Adam did now, and that’s where he’d learned it from. Jane had always wanted a horse but came from a family that couldn’t afford one. She’d studied horses from afar and been lucky the few times her parents had the money to put her in riding lessons. She’d eventually earned scholarships for school and worked hard to keep herself exactly where she wanted to be. Adam found that admirable, and she’d blushed and chewed at her bottom lip when he rained the sweetest compliments on her.

The night continued as they drank and laughed and talked and drank. The more time passed and the drunker they both got, the more times they stopped talking to wander toward the dance floor. Adam would pinch her hips with his broad palms and pull her in tight against him and get a little bit braver every song they went out to. The next time he spun her, his hand slid firm and with purpose down the curve of her ass. As his fingers gripped into the fat he hissed in a hard breath through his nose, lips pressed in a thin line together and jaw clenched.

Jane swallowed thick; her body pressed up against his. The room was spinning and warm. She felt sticky with sweat. She curled her fingers into his shirt and looked up into his hungry face. “Can we step outside? I think all the dancing is… getting to me.”

“Of course, darlin,” Adam said softly and put an arm around her waist as he walked her outside the bar.

The cool night air was exactly what she needed to steady her racing heart. She smiled over at Adam, tilting her head at how pretty he looked beneath the sign’s neon light. He’d tugged his hat off and run his thick fingers through his long, curly blond hair, and it made her want to do it, too. She giggled.

“What?” He asked, watching her curiously.

“I just can’t believe how handsome you are.”

“Ah, I…” He grinned and ducked his eyes down, giving her that sweet reaction she’d grown to love since she’d seen how shy he’d get. “Thank you. Means a lot, especially coming from a woman as beautiful as you,” he managed, glancing up at her and smiling as though dazed.

“God… you are too much.” The last words Jane managed before she flung herself forward, drunk and crashing her body into his thick, sturdy frame before laying her arms across his broad shoulders. Her lips smashed against his. His shocked surprise melted away quick and soon he was kissing her back with as much need as she’d demanded from him, if not more. Desperation paused at the edges of his touch, like he’d been a man starved of affection for too long and was having trouble holding himself back from devouring it all at once. 

It’d been a long time since Jane had been kissed, let alone like this. Adam’s hands were all over her body and he’d backed her against the brick wall to the bar, digging his hips up against hers. He was rough, but somehow Jane still knew he was doing everything he could to hold back, and he could be rougher. The way that storm brewed inside him and he tried his best to contain it made her heart pound. Adam pressed his tongue into her mouth and a soft moan vibrated in her throat as he dug his hips up between her legs.

A few snickers and whistles from down the way quickly reminded them both they weren’t alone. Adam jumped away from her as though she burned – or he burned her – and blinked until he’d cleared himself of the haze their desire had laid over them.

“I –”

“Are you sober?” Before he could get through his thoughts, Jane pressed, knowing exactly what she wanted now. She’d never felt this way before and Kate had been right. She was going to take full control of this experience and she had a feeling Adam needed to let go too.

“No.”

Jane suppressed a groan, knowing she was still too drunk to safely drive. “Please tell me this town has a cab service.”

“Actually, on Friday and Saturday nights, old Earl runs a little complimentary service to give free rides to people who can’t drive themselves home.”

“Oh, perfect. Can we…” she realized then that she didn’t want to bring him back to the hotel room. What if Kate had gone back early? What if she already had someone there? What if she arrived there later when Jane and Adam were… busy? She felt awkward, suddenly, realizing she was essentially inviting herself over to his place. “I mean, if you wanted to,” she stumbled out through kiss-swollen lips that still tasted like him, “I figured I could come to your place and we could… keep… going.”

Adam looked at her for only a moment and then nodded quick. “Yep. C’mon.” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and quickly hit a number, dialing the man who offered rides and letting him know how much they’d appreciate one. As soon as he hung up the phone, he was pulling her toward him, letting her body gently crash and settle against his. His hand slid greedy down her backside and rested against the side-curve of her ass. 

“I don’t really do this.” Her alcohol loose tongue spilled the beans but before she could be embarrassed, Adam was nodding.

“I don’t either.”

“I don’t know if I believe you,” Jane said, tilting her head and looking up at him. “You’re… ridiculously handsome, you’re sweet, you’re funny… wait, did I say how hot you were?”

“I think handsome counts toward that.”

“No. No, handsome and hot are two things. You are both.”

“You’re quite the flatterer when you’re drunk.”

“And it’s adorable how shy you are about your good qualities, but also very frustrating. Stop dodging my compliments, cowboy.” Jane pressed up on the tip of her toes and pecked a quick kiss against his lips. They smiled at each other when she pulled away.

“Actually, Jane, I –” Adam began, but Jane shook her head firmly.

“Nu-uh. I said no arguing.”

“I wasn’t, I needed to tell you –” but before it could register that Adam was talking, someone honked their car horn behind her, and Jane jumped to look at an old man in a pick-up waving his hand toward them.

“Hey Adam!” It must’ve been Earl, the man who was going to give them a ride. Jane grinned and, hand in Adam’s, turned to head toward the truck. Adam didn’t follow.

“Wait, Jane, before we go, I needed to tell you –”

“Adam,” Jane said as she turned back toward him. “Whatever you have to say won’t change my mind. I… there’s something about you, about the way I feel about you, that I just can’t explain. I’m always logical, I always follow the path I can clearly see. I told Kate I wanted to learn to take risks and be brave, and I think fate led me here at the right moment so I could meet you. I don’t want to think about what tomorrow morning means, or that eventually I’m going to have to leave. I just want to be in the moment with you. Tonight. Please?”

Adam drew in a breath; he opened his mouth but seemed lost for words. His hand squeezed hers tight before nodding and following her toward the waiting pick-up truck.

Somehow Adam managed to hold a casual conversation with Earl on the short drive back to his property. Earl shot a few questions at her which Jane managed to answer despite being distracted eyeing Adam every chance she got. She needed those firm hands on her body again. She needed his mouth searing kisses into her skin. She needed to feel him pull her close as if every second they spent apart was a kind of torture for him to endure. That passionate storm was inside him, and Jane wanted to be the one he unleashed it on.

She needn’t suffer long, since the town was small, and Adam’s small ranch wasn’t too far outside the main streets. Earl pulled the truck into the driveway and let Adam know to give him a call if he needed a ride to get his pick-up the next day. He bid farewell to Jane and told her it was a pleasure meeting her. As he rolled his pick-up truck out of the driveway, leaving them standing hand-in-hand in front of Adam’s house, a horse nickered gently from the pine-wood arena.

“Looks like we woke Lucky up.” Adam said with a grin, gesturing toward the bay colt who stood at the fence, watching them with ears perked.

“Sorry Lucky!” Jane waved, and Lucky snorted, bobbing his head and giving another rumbling nicker.

“He’s telling you,” Adam whispered playfully, and jane laughed.

“I said sorry!”

Lucky snorted, swished his tail against his flanks and turned around, clearly deciding he’d heard enough and was done talking with her.

“Come on,” Adam whispered in her ear, pressing his lips against her neck. “Let’s go inside.” He turned her toward the door, fishing into his pocket for the house keys. 

After fumbling a little with the lock, Adam managed to open the door and the pair of them spilled into the living area without any grace. The door slammed shut as she pushed him into it and fell against him, lips hot on his and tongue slipping in his mouth. Adam groaned, fingers pinching her skin and tracing over her curves. Jane’s hands dropped between their bodies, and her fingers brushed the shape of his cock, semi-hard and trapped in the tight denim of his jeans. Adam grunted and clenched his jaw, pouring a hot breath out of flared nostrils.

“God woman,” he managed in a tight voice as she ran her fingers up and down its shape, teasing more blood to fill it.

Drunk and giddy on the boldness inside her, Jane kept pushing the more Adam responded. She tugged his shirt from his jeans and slipped her fingers up beneath the material where she could feel his warm skin. Adam groaned. His wide palms skimmed down her backside until they could grip and squeeze into the fat on her ass. He pushed her into him, and Jane went without a fuss.

While she had been the one to lose control initially, Adam turned the tides quickly. He pushed off the door and bullied her willing body backwards, one hand lifting to the back of her hair, guiding her mouth against his. His tongue pushed into her mouth just as the arm of the couch touched the back of her knees. Adam didn’t stop and they toppled over, him falling as a shadowed blanket over her body. Their laughter and giggling were breathless and short-lived as their mouths crashed together again.

A knee between her legs parted them, and Adam’s hips sank dominantly. He pressed the bulge of his hard cock, painfully trapped beneath his denim jeans, against the rucked-up fabric of her flowy dress and the cotton of her panties. He thrusted and groaned. Jane’s eyelashes fluttered, chin jutting out toward him as the back of her head pressed into the couch cushion she was laid on. When his mouth left hers – he panted in warm breaths above her as he grinded between her legs – Jane moaned unashamedly. It melted into a needy whine, and her fingers left his thick, muscled arms to run down the shape of his back, nails pushing into the material of his shirt.

Adam lowered his mouth, caught her lips greedily and with enough force to bruise, but didn’t stay long. He left her lips tingling as he began to kiss along her jawline and down her neck. Jane’s hands went to the buttons on his shirt, eagerly and blindly slipping them out of their holes until the material hung open. Her fingers were immediately on his chest, smoothing down the firm shape of his pecs and over the soft fat on his stomach that lay atop the firm muscle below. She arched her nails into his skin just to feel him tremble, and to hear him moan against her as he took his mouth from her collarbone.

Pushing his palm into the couch for leverage, Adam lifted himself off the couch and away from her. He stood, breathing in great, heaving gasps, with his shirt hung open at his sides and showing that delicious torso and chest underneath. His cock was a hard and thick defined shape trapped in his Wranglers. His long, fluffy blond curls had been tousled by her greedy fingers and lay in wild directions around his face. He reached down, easily grabbing her up and swinging her over his shoulder. He was strong… Jane squealed and laughed, kicking her feet out.

“C’mon, wild thing. I think it’s time you were tamed.” He said while playfully jostling her up and onto his shoulder. He reached with the hand not holding her and smacked her ass. Hard.

“Adam!” Jane squealed, gasping at the soft sting of contact that made her nerves sing.

Adam chuckled with a raspy breath and kicked the door to his bedroom open with his boot, walking quickly across the open space to dump her gently onto the bed. Jane bounced into the soft give of the mattress, laughter in her mouth as she turned on the duvet and laid herself out in front of him. The flowy, flirty material of her dress had ridden up her thighs and left them bare and pale for him to look at. Adam stood at the end of the bed, knees brushing its edge, and stared down at her with his blue eyes gone black in hunger.

Jane had never had a man look at her like that, let alone one who looked like Adam. She was breathless, skin flush and patched with red from where his mouth, tongue and teeth had already tasted her all down her neck and over the soft cleavage of her breasts. Lying out on his bed, Jane propped herself up on her elbows as Adam slowly began to strip from his clothes in front of her. He pushed the shirt still hanging open off first, revealing those thick, work-muscle curved arms, broad chest and thick torso. His fingers fell to his belt buckle next, which caught a shimmer of light from the moon outside when he tugged it from the clasp and left the leather of the belt hanging open in his well-fitting jeans. 

She drew a breath as he slipped the button free on his jeans, tugging the stiff denim off his hips. She could easily see the thick bulge of his cock pressed hard and needy against his boxer-briefs, tip of the head skimming the elastic band. He hooked them on his thumbs and tugged, pulling them down his thick, blond-hair dusted thighs. His cock swung forward, heavy, and he grunted before sighing with relief at finally having no restrictions holding it tight. He was big… bigger than Jane had ever been with (not that she’d been with many men to compare him to). Her eyes widened, and she forced herself to pull them from his cock, so their eyes could meet.

Jane swore the alcohol should have all but burned up in her veins but thought she must still be at least buzzed for the bravado she suddenly grasped. Beneath the steadfast eyes of a handsome, naked blond-haired angel cowboy in front of her, Jane slowly pushed herself up on the bed until she was on her knees. She reached down, grabbing the material of her dress, heart pounding in her throat and skin hot. Forcing herself to hold his eyes, Jane pulled it upright slowly, pulling the fabric away until she was kneeling in front of him in her cute matching set of baby blue and white pinstripe bra and panties. She didn’t stop or hesitate, even when Adam’s tongue wet his lips in anticipation and made the muscles in her belly squeeze tight. She twisted an arm behind her back and easily popped the clasp to her bra, shrugging the material off completely. Her fingers went to her panties.

“Wait,” he could barely talk, his throat was so tight, but that command fell hard between them. She watched his large chest rise and fall with needed breaths and slowly pulled her hands away from her hips.

Adam leaned his weight onto the bed, setting his bare knees atop the duvet. He crawled over her and Jane laid back until her head was on the pillows and he was a dark shadow above her. Horses, the outdoors, a faint wisp of unoffensive cologne and the clean smell of whatever he used for his curly, blond hair drifted off him and wrapped itself around her. She sighed into it, too wrapped up in the emotions to realize that though they were practically strangers, that smell made her soul feel as if she was home.

His fingertips lay gentle touches on her body, down her arms, along her sides, to her hips. They stilled in the elastic of her panties, and Adam pressed his lips against hers, suppressing a groan on her tongue as he pulled that last bit of clothing that lay as a barrier between them. As soon as they were cast aside, his hands returned to her body, skimming her curves, fingers curling in to where fat naturally rested on her figure and giving it a greedy squeeze. His calloused palms slipped from her ass to her breasts, where he devoted time, tongue, and touch to making her nipples hard and her moans sing one after the other from her caught-open mouth. Jane arched her back toward his touch and reached to slip her fingers into his blond curls, pulling tight.

His mouth popped wet off her right breast, the skin tingling from where his beard had gently scratched it. One hand was used to prop his large body over her, so he didn’t squish her beneath his weight, but the other reached so his thumb and forefinger clasped her chin. Adam turned her eyes toward his – barely discernable, but for the moonlight pouring in the window to the left of the bed – and slowly lowered his hips between her parted legs. His cock skimmed her thigh before the head pressed at the warm, wet, tender lips between her legs. He found where she parted, their eyes locked, and his open mouth poured a warm, long moan over her as he slowly sank inch after inch inside her.

Only once there was no more room left for him to press in did Adam release her chin. He dipped and smeared his lips over hers. His tongue pushed into her mouth at the same time he drew his hips back and pushed in again. His moan was a vibration in against her tongue and to hear it made her eyes want to roll. Jane arched toward him, taking him more eagerly at his next thrust. Together, they found a pace that drew passionate moans spilling freely from her kiss-swollen lips and ones from him in hot, heavy breaths above her.

For a moment, that’s what it was. Fucking. The pair of them lost in the sensation of being in that intimate, special place with someone their hearts were deeply moved by. Jane watched him over her, what she could see of him in eyes adjusted to the dark and moonlight spilled through glass pane. She watched the hard dip of his brow, the intense dark of his blue eyes staring down at her, and the jerk of his gold curls over her, the ends just brushing her bare shoulders every time he thrust inside. She could feel how tight she was around him. How wet.

Adam’s eyes met hers, and they were pulled back into the moment and away from their individual, romantic thoughts. Adam’s hips slowed, and each stroke was full, languid, and enjoyed. He dipped, brushing his lips across hers with a brief touch that sent tingles through them. Once. Twice. He teased these kisses, but never fully pressed his mouth against hers. She ached for it. The tips of her brows pulled inward and the noise she made became half a moan, half a whine. Adam responded with a chuckle that was merely a breath and sank into kissing her as deeply and fully as she’d wanted. His tongue stroked hers as his cock pressed inside, and she moaned, arching beneath him.

Only when their lungs were near starved of air did their lips break, and each drew desperate, shared breaths as Adam’s forehead pressed against hers.

“Jane,” he moaned, and to hear him say her name nearly pushed her to the edge.

“Oh,” she whined, brow pinched tight, face warm with his breath, “Adam… Adam…”

The slow pace dissipated as he pulled them toward delectation, his hips swinging wildly into hers, their moans and grunts and panting mixing together. Sweat stuck their skin close and blood sang through their veins, every nerve in their bodies on fire, sensitive to the faintest touch. Jane’s eyes closed tight, her mouth hung open, and the velvet muscles wrapped around his cock squeezed tight before, victim to the whims of her body, she went still as stone.

“Adam!” One last cry strangled from her throat as the crash came. Fireworks behind her eyes. Jane’s thighs trembled and shook, clapping against his hips as Adam grunted and drove himself deep inside her, going still. His thick fingers curled tight into the sheets, muscled arms squeezing her arms tight. The heat of him poured inside her, and it was only then she realized they’d been too wrapped up in the moment and hadn’t thought to use protection. Strangely enough, for a girl who never took risks, Jane wasn’t the slightest bit bothered.

Adam slumped on top of her for a moment, drew a breath, and slowly eased his weight from suffocating her. Sensitive and coming down from their individual highs, they maneuvered their bodies carefully to relax into the aftermath. Gingerly, Adam pulled himself from her, bent to lay a soft kiss against her forehead, and walked barefoot across the room to what appeared to be the master bathroom. The light pooled white and gentle from the open door and he left it on as he returned clutching a small washcloth which he’d lightly dampened with warm water.

“If you’d like?” A question in his voice as he handed it toward her.

Jane smiled and took it from him, trying not to be touched that his first thought after sex was to get her a washcloth to clean up with. It was an act that should be commonplace, but she knew from experience it often wasn’t. As she cleaned away the sticky webs of their joined cum from her thighs, Adam returned to the bathroom to presumably wash himself up, came back to pull on his boxer-briefs and turned to rummage around in the nearby dresser.

“I can give you one of my shirts to sleep in, if you’d like?”

Jane had just started gathering up her clothes when she looked up and saw him smiling gently, hand extended with a white cotton t-shirt in hand. She smiled and nodded, taking it with a thank you and went to clean herself up, pulling on her panties and pulling his shirt on before glancing at herself in the bathroom mirror. Had she ever seen herself look so carefree and happy? A smile crawled across her face before she could stop it, and she ran her fingers through her hair, fixing it from where it’d bunched and tangled during their lovemaking. Her heart felt as if it skipped, thinking of going back into the room and snuggling into his arms for the evening.

That smile again.

She turned away and clicked off the light, stepping into the moonlit room where her cowboy had gingerly taken her dress and bra, setting them on the dresser beside where he’d propped her boots. He was laying in bed beneath the cover and, when she entered the room, threw the other side back and gently patted the mattress.

“C’mere beautiful,” he said, voice gentle and sweet.

Jane slipped into bed and cuddled up against his side as he opened his arm for her to tuck in. That arm wrapped around her body as Jane turned into him, head resting on his broad, warm chest. For a moment they said nothing, only existed. Adam’s breath was warm against her hair. Everything in Jane began to relax, her entire body feeling as if it were made of jelly. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this content. Her eyelids began to gently close and she fought them, not wanting to waste a moment they had together on sleep. Adam’s fingers began to skim up and down her bicep and shoulder.

“Can I say something super cheesy?” Jane asked quietly, eyes still closed.

“Mm?” His voice rumbled in his chest where her cheek rested. 

“The way I feel with you… I’ve never felt this way with anyone.” Too astonished, too happy, and too relaxed, Jane couldn’t pause to worry about whether that was something she should have kept to herself. Those were the kind of things you said to a man you’d been seriously dating, not a one night stand you met on a quick stop-off on a road trip where you’d likely never return.

It was only when Adam didn’t say anything immediately that worry pinched at her heart. Jane stirred on his chest, tilting her head up to look at him. She found him watching her, blond curls a fluffy mane around his handsome face, blue eyes filled with a myriad of emotions all tangled up in one. He was smiling, though, and he shook his head gently back and forth before leaning forward and pulling her in with his arm, so he could press his lips in a kiss against the top of her head.

“I feel the same way about you,” he confessed once he’d laid back and relaxed his arm, letting them return to how they’d been snuggling.

Without it needing to be said, they both were smart enough to see that this wasn’t easy. In the morning, Kate would likely be ready to drive on, and they’d continue to their destination. Maybe on the way back they could stop again… but Jane still had a semester left before graduating university and from there, she’d planned on job hunting closer to home to stay near her parents, siblings, and nephews and nieces. Adam had his parents here and his small horse ranch and horse training business. Their lives were set in opposite directions.

It was with that unfortunate echo of an ache, wrapped up in Adam’s arms, that Jane drifted off to sleep, her mind unable to grasp to a solution, but too comfortable being held by him to do anything but surrender to the peace it inspired.

Sleep came and stayed until the soft, gentle chiming of an alarm began to pull her back to consciousness. She groaned gently.

“Sorry darlin’,” Adam whispered in a soft voice, gently easing himself out from where they’d still been tucked up close together, so he could grab his phone and cut the alarm. “I have to go feed the horses.” It was still dark outside, judging by the lack of light in the room. He slipped out of the bed and the immediate lack of his warmth made her shiver. Gently, he set the cover back around her before rummaging around for clothes.

“Do you want me to help?” It was mumbled into the crook of her arm, where she hadn’t managed to lift her head. Despite offering, she could feel sleep pulling her back.

Adam leaned over and placed a kiss on her temple, thumb gently tucking a wayward lock of her hair behind her ear. Jane lifted her sleepy eyes toward him and raised a brow.

“No, that’s alright sweetheart,” his gently spoken terms of endearment were making her heart ache in the most wonderful ways. He was still bent toward her, holding her face in the palm of his hand as if he couldn’t pull away. “When I get done we’ll go get some breakfast. Sound good?”

“Mm, mhm.” Jane nodded, and Adam brushed his lips against hers, sank into a deeper kiss, smiled and finally let her go.

“Go back to sleep. I’ll wake you up when I’m done.”

“Mmkay,” she barely managed, eyelids already drooping, and curled her arms around the blanket in his absence, inhaling his smell that sat in the sheets and drifting back off to sleep. His gentle laugh at her sleepy antics where the greeting to her dreams.

Jane wasn’t sure how long she slept for, but the soft light of early morning pushing in through the curtains pried at her eyes and she slowly opened them, wiping the sleep away and blinking the room into focus. Adam still hadn’t returned, but she wasn’t entirely surprised and felt a small stab of guilt, thinking she should have forced him to let her help him. It would’ve gone faster with the two of them. Slowly she moved from the bed, pulling the covers back and going to the bathroom to splash a bit of water on her face and run her fingers through her hair. She was just beginning to debate whether she should steal a pair of sweatpants from his drawers and go out to help him when she realized she could hear noises from somewhere in the house.

It sounded like a skillet being put on the stove, and she wondered if Adam had decided to surprise her by cooking breakfast instead of them going out. Smiling, Jane moved quickly from the bathroom, still dressed only in her panties and his shirt (it was large on her, the hem just barely covering the curve of her rear), she decided she’d let him know she was awake and spend time with him while he cooked. 

Jane started down the hallway, not trying to be particularly quiet. From around a turn, where she assumed the kitchen was, there came a sudden voice.

“Adam? You must’ve slept in late! Those horses are pry starving!”

A woman’s voice.

“I didn’t see your truck in the driveway! Did Earl Brown have to drive you home last night?”

Jane froze in step, eyes wide. What…? Who…?

“I’m making biscuits and gravy; it’ll be ready by the time you’re through feeding!”

Standing near the end of the hallway, Jane glanced back down at the end where the bedroom was, fingers pulling the hem of his shirt down and wondering what she should do. Should she go hide in the room until Adam came back in and explained what was happening? Should she go grab her dress, see if she could sneak out the window and call Kate to come pick her up? Shit… she couldn’t do that, she’d left her purse with her cellphone next to the couch when they’d first started making out.

Was he… with another woman? No… that couldn’t be it… Adam didn’t seem like the kind of man capable of cheating. Jane didn’t understand.

“Adam?” Concern and confusion now, and the voice was closer than before. When Jane hadn’t answered they’d apparently decided to come investigate.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck… It was too late for Jane to duck back down the hall. They’d see her scurrying away.

“Oh!” An older woman appeared around the corner of the hallway and stopped dead in her tracks, blinking with wide eyes and staring at Jane. “Oh… Oh my dear, I am so sorry… I thought you were…” She turned red in the face at the sight of Jane’s lack of dress.

“Um…” Jane took a small step back, dying inside and trying to figure out what to do.

At that exact moment someone else joined them. A young girl, maybe six or seven, with long curly blond hair set like a wild, untamable mane around her fair face and the prettiest set of blue eyes. She was holding a small, stuffed pony and dressed in a long cotton purple shirt with frilly fabric at the end and pink heart patterned leggings.

“Why are you wearing my daddy’s shirt?”

“Uhh…” Jane’s eyes were wide and jumped to the woman, who she now assumed must be Adam’s mother. Oh god… oh god…

“Avery, sweetheart,” the older woman blinked and snapped her realizations in place, turning with a smile at her granddaughter. “Can you help grandma set the table? Three places, alright?”

“But grandma,” the little girl argued in a whisper, glancing back at Jane with a confused and suspicious look across her young face, “she’s wearing my daddy’s shirt.”

“Avery be a good girl, alright. Listen to grandma. Go set the table.”

Avery looked from her grandma to the stranger in the house – Jane – and a look of frustration crossed her face before she turned around and headed back the way they’d come.

“I’m so sorry dear,” Adam’s mother started with hushed apologies, shaking her head and waving over Jane’s shoulder, “You just go back and get yourself decent. Breakfast will be ready in a little while.” With one last look that was both confused and apologetic, the older woman turned and followed the way Avery had gone, leaving Jane standing alone in the hallway, struggling to process what had just happened.

Adam… had a daughter?

Jane had ducked quickly into the living room to grab her purse, retreated to the bedroom to put on her bra and dress and was sitting on the bed, trying to figure out what she was going to do, by the time Adam slowly came into the room. He looked embarrassed and closed the door with a soft click behind him.

“Jane… I…”

“You have a daughter.”

“Yeah…”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Confused, she searched his face for answers. 

“I don’t know…” He glanced from the floor at his feet to her and shook his head slowly. “I… I was going to, before we got into Earl’s truck, but… what you said about not wanting to worry about the consequences, and it just being about last night… I was drunk… I…” He paused and blew out a breath, walking across the room to sit on the end of the bed. They were in reach, but still sitting apart. “I don’t have a good enough reason, Jane. I just felt something for you I haven’t felt for anyone in a long time, and I was afraid if you knew I was a single father, you wouldn’t want to get involved with me. I should have said something, I know. I just… wanted to let go for once and enjoy something good that crossed my path. I don’t get that very often, if ever.”

There was an ache in his voice. A sorrow. It transcended across his body and his shoulders were hunched, eyes dark and troubled. 

“Well…” Jane drew a breath, “it’s not like anyone got hurt… I mean, I’m mortifyingly embarrassed knowing the first time your mother and daughter saw me, I was only wearing your t-shirt and my panties, but I’ll be fine as long as your daughter isn’t mentally scarred.”

Adam’s brows dipped apologetically. “God, Jane, I’m so sorry… my mom was going to keep Avery for the day, but she had a nightmare and wanted me, so they decided to come over and cook up breakfast. I was out in the barn and didn’t hear them pull up, and I never have anyone over, so she didn’t think…”

Immediately, Jane thought of that adorable little girl with his fluffy blond curls and lovely blue eyes, scared and needing her father, and nothing else mattered. Who cared if she’d suffered some embarrassment? It wasn’t the first time. It would have been nice to have Adam tell her about his daughter, but Jane could see his side of things. Why bother talking about her if it was obvious, they weren’t going to see one another again? 

“Can I ask about her mother?”

A look crossed Adam’s face. It was that same one he’d had briefly last night, when Wade had been surprised to see he was with a girl, and when he’d started talking about moving back home after college. It was pain and sadness and regret.

“She’s out of the picture. For good.” His voice clipped at the end.

“Oh…” Jane said softly and glanced at her hands in her lap.

“It was her choice.”

She looked over at him. Adam licked his lips and ran a frustrated hand through his curls, offsetting them. It made Jane’s fingers itch, wanting to reach across the distance between them to tuck the hair back in place. He wore his pain so close to the surface, it was impossible not to see it. 

“How old was Avery when she left?”

“It was a month before she turned two. I moved back home so my mom could help me with raising her.”

“Oh…” Jane blinked, trying to think of a reason a woman would leave her year-old daughter and a man like Adam behind. She just kept drawing blanks.

Suddenly, there came a wild flurry of little knocks on the door. “Daddy and Daddy’s friend, Grandma says breakfast is ready! Come get it while it’s hot!” The little voice yelled behind the door, and despite the heavy atmosphere in the room, Jane smiled. They could hear the little patter of her feet as she ran back away, returning to the kitchen.

Adam looked over at Jane.

“If you just want to leave, I wouldn’t blame you. I can wait with you until your friend arrives… I’d hate to subject you to sitting down for breakfast with my mama and my daughter after all this.”

Those were the sort of things you did after you’d been dating for a while, when you talked about maybe becoming a little more serious and kept going back and forth about when and how you’d meet them. Their already complicated story got a whole lot more complicated.

“Do you want me to leave?” Jane asked, watching him quietly.

“No,” he said it too quickly, realized he did, and drew a breath. It slipped out slow and he shook his head, staring at her. “I don’t ever want you to leave.” He hesitated, as if realizing he’d said it, and then decided to charge full steam ahead. “Actually, I uh… I’ve been trying to sort it out the whole morning while I was feeding the horses, I might have some ideas how we could make this work…”

“Make… what work?” Jane could barely breathe.

“Us…” Adam’s blue eyes were soft on her. “If… if you wanted to try it, that is.”

Talk about complicated. Jane blinked, envisioning her strict plan she’d kept herself diligently on, pushing herself through university to earn her degree, and how close she was to finally checking everything off her to-do list. Nowhere did it say she’d start dating a single father in Montana.

But when was the last time anyone made her feel this way?

Jane stood up slowly. A look of sorrow touched Adam’s face as he assumed, she meant to leave, but he pushed it away, as if he wanted to do everything he could to help ease the burden of making this decision He didn’t even want her knowing he was upset about the choice he made, trying to respect what she chose. Jane’s heart ached, but she didn’t leave the room. Instead, she walked around to his front to face him, put her hands on his shoulders and smiled when his eyes lifted and met hers.

“Let’s hear those ideas,” Jane said, and was about to say more when Avery’s little voice yelled through the house.

“YOUR BISCUITS ARE GETTING COLD!”

They both broke out into grins.

“After breakfast.” Jane concluded. “I’d hate to let a man’s biscuits go cold.”

Adam stood up, and his wide, warm, calloused palms wrapped around her hands. He pulled her in and leaned down, kissing her gently.

“After breakfast.”


	3. What Love Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane and Adam have been dating long-distance for five months ever since their chance meeting on her road trip. They’ve grown closer than ever and the reality of their complicated future is drawing nearer. Jane decides to spend her winter break in Montana with Adam, much to the disappointment of her mother, who was hoping Jane would come home for the holidays.

“Are you really not going to be home for Christmas this year?”

Jane worried at her nail, biting it (a horrible habit), as she held her phone to her ear and tried to fight the guilt her mother’s voice plagued her with.

“Mom, I told you already…” Jane started gently and suppressed the sigh pushing up her chest.

“I know, I know…” Her mother said before Jane could start. They’d already discussed it in full length when Jane had gone home for Thanksgiving and first broached the subject. 

Adam and Jane had been dating long distance since the summertime when they’d met on her road trip with her best friend, Kate. Jane had one semester of college left after winter break and then, degree in hand, it’d be time for her to put it to use. Jane still wasn’t sure what to do. They were too early in the days of dating to suggest moving in together and the bigger city was still a few hours’ drive from Adam’s. Adam’s town was small and not in need of any type of equine veterinarian. They already had a town vet, and Adam already said the man was still years off from retirement.

Stuck in circles with no concrete solution in sight, Jane decided she’d spend her winter break with Adam and his daughter. It would be a month of time together when they’d only had a few days previously. Jane hadn’t admitted it out loud, but it was sort of a test, too. The way she felt about Adam was exciting, but terrifying, too. She’d dated in the past and even thought she was in love before, but those relationships paled in comparison to this.

Every time her phone rang, and it was Adam calling or facetiming, her heart felt as if it was in her throat. Her cheeks always hurt after they finished talking from how much she’d been smiling. They texted back and forth constantly in paragraphs, trusting one another and letting down the walls past hurt had made them build. Jane had never connected with anyone like she connected with Adam. She considered herself a reasonable person, but they’d only known one another for around five months and she already knew she was in love with him.

Not that she’d told him… even if Kate had tried to convince her that she should.

“Jane, honey?” Her mother’s voice gently broke her out of her thoughts, and Jane looked in dismay to see she’d broken off a tiny chip of her nail.

“Sorry mom, I just have a lot on my mind.” She got up from the couch and started pacing.

There was silence for a few seconds before her mother sighed. She’d already told Jane previously that she shouldn’t be focusing on a relationship with a man when she was so close to graduating. School, she’d said, should be her main priority. Men would come and go. Jane wished her mom could just _meet_ Adam. She’d understand. Adam wasn’t like any man Jane had ever met.

“Well, just know that if you change your mind we’d love it if you were here.”

“I know mom.” Jane’s heart sank. She hated disappointing her mother and she loved being home for the holidays. Her family was the sort that went all out, singing to classic Christmas tunes as they decorated, making a trip of going to the tree lot to pick the tree, dressing in big, comfy warm clothes and getting coffee before they walked the neighborhoods and admired everyone’s light-up decorations, sugar cookie baking and decorating, and so much more. Jane loved it, especially her rowdy, excited nephews and nieces running amuck around the house and filling it with cheer.

“I love you dear,” her mom said gently. It was weird for them to disagree on something. Jane had always made such sound, reasonable decisions, she could tell the way she was chasing her heart with Adam had confused her mother. This wasn’t like Jane.

“I love you too mom.” Jane said, and then the call ended.

She had two text messages waiting from Adam.

_I was just out talking to Lucky and he reminded me I’ll be seeing you in just a few days. Can’t wait darlin. I miss you._

_Lucky says he misses you too._

Jane smiled, her heart immediately lifting. A soft giggle and she was quickly replying, texting back.

_I knew you could talk to horses! Tell Lucky I miss him too._

_Oh, and I miss you too, I guess._

She added a little emoji with the tongue sticking out, then one with a little angelic halo circling its head. It didn’t take long for Adam to reply with laughing emoji’s and then for three little bubbles to appear, telling her he was texting back.

_Shit… I guess the game is up, you know my secret that I’m the only person on God’s green earth than can talk to horses. Hope I can trust you to keep it… otherwise…_

_Are you all packed? Excited? Second thoughts? _

They’d discussed the trip in lengths over the last month or two since Jane decided she’d spend her entire winter break with Adam. Initially, Adam had argued against it, not that he didn’t want her to spend time with him, but that he felt it was important she not sacrifice her family traditions and her time to go home and spend the holidays with them. He’d also felt bad, knowing her mother was giving her a hard time over it. But Jane hadn’t budged, and he’d eventually caved to the excitement of getting to have her with him for an entire month.

_You know I’m not having any second thoughts, dummy. And I’m so excited I can barely sleep! I feel like this is already my Christmas present, just getting to see you._

She chewed at the inside skin of her lip, yet another of a list of bad habits she had when she was worriedly thinking. She didn’t want Adam to be upset that she and her mom were still on the outs because of this, but she wanted to tell him, too. He was always so good at knowing the right things to say to help ease whatever little aches were plaguing her heart. Jane had never had a boyfriend as sweet, genuine and attentive as Adam was. It scared her a little bit.

This was what love was.

They still hadn’t said those words to each other, but Jane knew. She was completely and helplessly in love with Adam Page, the mustang-taming cowboy and single-father from Montana. 

That was what made the approach of her final semester a little scarier as well as the looming shadow of her future, where she’d go, and what choices she’d make. Would she sacrifice her heart for her career, or her career for her heart? She’d spent her entire life, from early childhood, working her ass off to get to where she was. She’d always known she was going to work with horses and veterinary school wasn’t easy, nor was it easy to earn and keep her full-ride scholarship to so she could attend. Her professors were already helping her gain connections with vet clinics across the United States. She could have her pick after graduation and she knew that made her luckier than most university graduates.

But Adam was in Montana and she knew she couldn’t do a long-distance relationship forever. Eventually she wanted to be married, to share the house and the white-picket fence, the ten-acre farm with a few horses, goats, chickens, and dogs. She wanted to hear children’s feet running through the house and their shrill, youthful giggles followed by Adam, laughing warm and happy as he playfully chased after them. She wanted it so badly it terrified her. Jane’s plan had always been to focus on her career until she was graduated and had been working at her chosen clinic for a year before she started dating or even considered the idea of marriage and children.

One chance meeting and everything was being thrown up into the air. Jane wasn’t sure where the pieces were set to fall, either.

Her phone buzzed, and she glanced down, realizing she’d missed a couple texts from Adam. The first had been sent shortly after her prior reply and read: _Now hang on, I’m not that thoughtless of a boyfriend, darlin’. You’re getting spoiled on Christmas whether you like it or not. Me getting you for a month is my present, not yours. Keep that in mind._

She smiled. In the absent gap where she didn’t reply, tangled in her endless circling thoughts, he’d just texted again.

_Everything alright?_

He knew. Even hundreds of miles apart, he somehow knew. Jane didn’t know how he did it. She took a breath and began to text, telling him the truth.

_Sorry babe, I just got off the phone with my mom before I text you and she’s still being… well… my mom._

Rather than receive a text reply, her phone started ringing. A selfie they’d taken with Avery in the middle, all three of them smiling wide and happy – Adam distracted and looking at Jane instead of into the camera – flashed up on her screen and made her smile again. It did every time she saw it. She pressed to answer the call and put the phone to her ear.

“Hi baby,” she said softly.

“Hey darlin’,” she heard the metal latch of the gate swinging and locking into place and the air moving around him as he started walking. He’d been working out with the horses while he was texting her. “I’m sorry your mama is giving you a hard time, but you know she’s just worried about you.”

“I know,” Jane admitted, but frustration clung to her tone. “I just wish she’d trust me. She acts like I’m throwing everything away, like we’re not constantly worrying about what the future is going to mean. Like I’m wasting everything I’ve worked hard for just because I fel-” she cut herself off abruptly, realizing with a start as she got worked into her rant she almost said it then and there. _Like I’m wasting everything I’ve worked hard for just because I fell in love._

“I know darlin’, I know.” After a slight pause – long enough to make her worry that he’d figured out what she nearly said – Adam spoke. “Just give her time. Do what you think is best for you. That’s all that matters. Alright?” He didn’t corner her or ask her what she’d been about to say. Maybe it hadn’t been as obvious as she thought.

“Yeah,” Jane sighed and wrapped one of her arms around her waist, wishing she could be curled up in his arms again, laying on his broad, muscled chest while he spoke gentle reassurances and ran his wide palm in calming strokes up and down her back. Her heart lifted when she realized that would be a tangible thing she could have in just a few days’ time. It had felt like this vacation would never get here. “I just can’t wait for you to hold me again.” She confessed in a soft, small voice. Showing her weakness and need to someone was strange for Jane, so used to having to take care of everyone else and herself all on her own. 

But Adam let her slip. He took the weight of the world off her shoulders without complaint, happy to be her solace.

“Darlin’, when you get here, you’re going to spend all night in my arms. Hell, we might be together so long we’re going to start growing into one person.” He joked, helping lift her weary spirit and making her laugh. “You know… I was going to let this be a surprise, but I think it might help you to know it now…”

“What?” Jane blinked, wondering what trick he had up his sleeve. “What is it?”

“The night you fly in to Billings, me and you are staying in a hotel and heading to the ranch the next day. My ma is watching Avery and looking after the horses, so we can have a little time just the two of us.”

“Oh, Adam,” Jane sighed, unable to keep how happy and relieved by the thought she was. She loved his daughter and she adored his mother. The woman had been a blessing at smoothing over the awkward situation when they’d first met and before they’d parted ways she’d gripped Jane’s hand tight and smiled, telling her she couldn’t begin to say how happy she was Adam had found a good-hearted girl like her. Jane and Avery were still figuring one another out, but Adam assured her Avery would get more comfortable the more time she spent around them. Jane was the only woman Adam had dated since Avery’s mother had left when she was too young to remember her, so it was an adjustment for the little girl. 

“That sounds like heaven.”

“Good,” he said, and she heard the happy smile in his voice. “I’m sorry darlin’, but I’m going to have to cut this call a little short. I’ve got a guy coming from out of town to look at some of the colts I gentled, and it looks like he just pulled up.”

Jane hoped the man liked them and bought them. Adam made his living training horses, both clients who brought their horses to him for training and by adopting wild horses from the BLM holding facility a couple hours from his ranch which he gentled into sound, hardy little workhorses. If no one was buying, he wasn’t profiting. 

“That’s okay! I need to finish packing anyways. Good luck baby!”

“Thanks, darlin’, can’t wait to see you again.”

“I can’t wait to see you too.”

“Bye darlin’.”

“Bye baby,” she said, and listened for a just a few seconds longer as Adam lowered the phone from his ear and called out in his happy, robust country drawl to the man who’d just arrived at his ranch. The call ended, and she sighed, feeling better and more excited to get to Billings and into the arms of the wonderful man waiting for her.

*****

The minute their eyes met, Adam cut through the crowd of people waiting in the airport lobby for their loved ones, opening his arms and grabbing Jane up before she could say a word. He pulled her close and dipped, pressing their lips together in a kiss that told her how badly he’d needed to do that without saying a word. Jane pulled away dizzy and a little breathless, cheeks flush as she looked up into the face of her handsome cowboy, who made her heart race with just a look.

“God woman,” He sighed and whispered against her lips as their foreheads pressed gently together, “I missed you more than I thought it was possible to miss someone I was talking to every day.”

“Me too,” she said, heart already soaring. Adam was so open about his admiration of her, he never gave her a chance to worry he didn’t feel just as strongly about her as she did him. His hands dropped to hers as he pulled away, wrapping gently around them, squeezing and rubbing the pad of his thumb over her palm. 

“Let’s go get your suitcase and get out of here,” he said, grin climbing higher into his round cheeks and making the laugh lines around his eyes more prominent. He was turning away, bringing her with him. “I need to get you alone in that hotel room before I explode.”

Jane laughed softly and blushed – even though they’d slept together, done naughty phone calls, texts, snapchats and facetime calls together, she still felt flush any time Adam’s attention turned ravenous. Sometimes the way he looked at her stunned her. Jane didn’t think she was particularly unattractive, but everyone had their little spots they stared at a little too long in the mirror and she was no exception. Adam drowned her in earnest compliments and pointed out parts of herself she’d never appreciated or took a second to see as beautiful. Seeing herself through his eyes was a new experience and sometimes, when she was having a moment where she felt particularly cute, she could hear how he’d compliment her and get giddy before snapping a picture and sending it his way.

Adam never disappointed. The moment he had a chance to look at it – which was normally quickly after she sent it unless he was working with a horse – he said just what she imagined he would and then some.

The pair retrieved her suitcase and headed out to his truck. As they made their way through the crowds, Jane caught the eyes of other women that were drawn toward Adam as they walked. A small nagging bite of insecurity threatened to wiggle its way through. He was so damn handsome in his Stetson – a black one this time, set on his fluffy, shoulder-length blond curls – workman’s jacket, plaid button-up, dark-wash tight-fit jeans, big silver belt-buckle and brown ostrich leather boots. Jane couldn’t blame them for looking, but she glanced down at herself and wondered what they thought of her. Did they think he could do better?

“Darlin?” Adam’s concerned voice drew her eyes back to his. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” she said and smiled, which was easier beneath that Montana summer sky blue-eyed stare. “I’m perfect.” She smiled a little deeper, remembering she was here to be with Adam and he was here to be with her, and Adam matched the grin before ducking in to steal a quick kiss, squeezing their joined hand and maneuvering up to his truck. No one else mattered. A thousand woman could look at Adam, but his eyes were always on her.

Jane climbed in the cab and Adam loaded up the suitcase before climbing into the driver’s seat. The truck started with a gentle rumble and he reached to turn the music station down low enough they could talk if they want to. Before she could buckle in to the passenger’s seat, he gently patted the wide breadth of his palm against the middle bench seat beside him.

“I’ve had enough of getting to see and hear you but not touch you,” he said, “c’mon.”

Jane grinned and let go of the seatbelt she’d just grabbed, scooting over until she could curl up against him. He wrapped one arm around her and tucked her in close as she buckled the waistband seatbelt. As the truck pulled out of the airport lot and onto the road, Jane remembered to ask him about the horses.

“Did that rancher buy any of your colts?”

Adam looked down at her and brightened before looking at the road ahead with a nod. “He sure did! Bought all five I had trained up. He had his eyes on Lucky too, but I’ve barely started ground manners and I told him I don’t rush a horse. They learn at their pace. I told him if he was still in need of good horses by the time Lucky was ready I’d let him know and he could come take a look and see if he was still wanting him.”

Jane felt her heart sink. She knew it was stupid, but she would hate to see Lucky go. She felt like he bonded she and Adam together. The first time Adam had been working with the wild colt was the first time she and Adam had met. But Adam’s horse training was a business and he needed to sell horses to keep it operating.

“That’s great!” She said, because it was true that it was great. Sometimes it took one rancher who knew other ranchers who were looking for new stock to put him in demand. Hell, they might even ship a colt or two his way to have it trained up, too. The more word spread about Adam’s work with horses, the more opportunity he’d have to gentle them in a way that respected the bond between man and horse, and the more chances he’d have to keep bringing in fresh stock and training them up.

“Yeah,” Adam said, “actually, because he bought so many, I figured we could make a little stop before we go grab the Christmas tree tomorrow.” He glanced over at Jane as they stopped at a red light, one eyebrow quirking.

“Oh? What’s that?” 

Adam decided they’d wait to get the Christmas tree until Jane was there, and the three of them – himself, Jane, and Avery – would go pick one out, bring it home and decorate it that night. It was a way of helping Avery adjust a little more to Jane’s presence in their little family, even though the situation was a little bit strange. It was also a way to give Jane a little bit of her family traditions when she wouldn’t be back home to participate in them.

“Well, my buddy who’s a handler up at the BLM facility called and let me know they got some nice-looking colts in that he thinks I could do something with. They were shipped in out of state. I figured we’d go up to the BLM facility and see if we might come away with a horse or two.”

Jane couldn’t help the way her heart lifted in excitement. “That would be fun!”

“Yeah, and,” his grin stretched a little wider, “I think it’s time Avery got her first horse. There’s a yearling filly there, a little bay roan that makes me think of her. They’ve got the same personalities, I swear it. They could grow up together a little bit. The filly wouldn’t be ready for saddle training for a year or two at least, so that’d give Avery time to get used to the responsibility of keeping a horse. And they’d have each other for a long, long time.”

Jane’s heart swelled. She remembered being a little girl obsessed with horses, daydreaming about when Santa would finally give in to her pleading letters and deliver a pony for her on Christmas day. “She’s going to love that so much.”

He grinned. “It’s about time, the girl started riding before she could walk, and she’s wanted one of her own for long enough now.”

Adam pulled the truck off the freeway and down to the parking lot of the multi-story hotel. They checked in and Jane’s excitement had her breath hard to catch the further down those door-lined halls they traveled. She was going to have Adam alone again. In person. There wasn’t any phone to clutch to her ear. There wasn’t any time she was going to close her eyes and feel a sharp ache in her heart for how badly she wished he was tangible. She was going to be held in those big, strong country arms of his and up against that broad, thick-muscled chest. When she put her ear to it, she was going to hear his heartbeat.

Jane glanced up at Adam, who she caught watching her. A gentle flush crept across his pale cheeks, just barely hidden by the blond of his beard. She knew he must’ve been thinking along the lines of what she’d been. The last time they’d physically been together they’d been practical strangers, drunk on some powerful, near-divine feeling of soulmate like proportions. Now they’d spent months talking and texting and facetiming on the phone. He’d listened to her meltdown rants about school and helped talk her back up. She’d listened to him gush about how well one of the colts had done or have him pull Avery up to tell her how good she did at school that day. They knew one another more intimately than ever.

Adam’s free hand grabbed hers and entwined their fingers. He gave them a little squeeze and his smile deepened. Jane exhaled and smiled too, heart pounding in her ribcage.

They entered their room. The door hadn’t even swung shut when Adam was on her, hand leaving hers to instead frame her face between his palms. He crashed her back into the wall beside the door and smashed his mouth hot against hers. Jane moaned into his mouth, which stretched hers wider, and his tongue plunged between the open invitation. His hips dug hard, belt buckle pinching into her stomach. His thick fingers curled in her hair, around the back of her head, and held her firm as they kissed.

Jane worked her hands up between their bodies, dragging her nails over his stomach and up his chest. He groaned into their kiss and dug his hips upward between her legs again. She pushed at him, though his strength was immovable. It wasn’t that she wanted the kiss to end, but that she needed to breathe. Her lungs were starved, apparent by the way she gasped for air when he finally pulled his mouth from hers.

Adam’s heavy breaths fell hot over her, body frozen where it’d pinned her, tension leaking slowly from his muscles. He’d needed the breath too but had been so ravenous that he hadn’t been able to break the trance that kissing her became. Now they stood in quiet, chests heaving, ears roaring with the blood rushing through them.

“I missed you,” Jane said, voice small and sad. They’d talked every second they could, but she’d still missed him.

“I missed you too,” his voice was a similar ache above her. He leaned in and pressed his lips in a tender kiss on her forehead.

Adam stepped back but let one of his hands catch one of hers. He led her down to where the hotel bedroom opened and turned them, so her back was to the bed. Despite the need built inside him for her, Adam forced his fingers slow as he stripped her clothing. As each new item fell away, his eyes appraised her, and he breathed low under his breath. When he popped her bra off and slipped the straps down her shoulders, he licked his lips and groaned low in his throat.

Adam knelt and helped her step out of her boots and jeans, carefully setting her feet right. He tilted his head back, blond curls barely maintained by his Stetson and looked up her naked body, catching her eyes with his. Jane flushed and swallowed.

“Sit back, angel.” He demanded, country drawl soft, and Jane lowered to sit on the plush white comforter atop the bed. He pinched the crown of his hat and pulled it off, setting it to the bed and running a hand through his hair to smooth the pressed-down bend the band of it had created.

Adam peeled her socks off and fell to holding her right ankle. His touch traveled slow up the back of her leg as he leaned in, gently pressing his lips to her skin. He kissed up her leg, beard scratching her thigh, and drew closer and closer between them. She could feel the warmth of his breath against her and it pulled a moan from her throat just as his mouth settled wide atop her skin. The muscle of his tongue curled, pressed between and drug up, then down. He ate her slow, letting her moans build and spill out of her caught-open lips, her back arched and hips rolling toward him. His wide hands splayed on her backside, fingers pushing and encouraging her as physically close to him as possible. His teeth grazed her raised, swollen clit and made her jerk at the electricity that spread along her nerves and flashed in the muscles of her thighs. The surprised yelp she made had a chuckle rumbling from his mouth and vibrating his lips and stubble against her sensitive, wet, needy clit.

Jane dropped her chin to her sweat-dappled chest, looking down her naked body at the halo of gilded curls buried between her thighs. Sensing her gaze, Adam raised his brow and let his blue eyes meet hers but didn’t once stop the way his tongue flicked and curled, or how he sucked back hard, as if the intent was to drink every drop. Caught in his hungry gaze, Jane’s heart beat quickened, and she sucked in a shaky, needed breath. Her thighs trembled on his shoulders and her eyes rolled back, unable to keep hold of his any longer.

Adam dipped against her with a more feverish passion, concentrating flicking the tip of his tongue over her clit and suckling with his lips. He drove her wilder and wilder, her hips gyrating against his mouth as he feasted. But, he didn’t let her cum. When nirvana was in reach, every muscle in her body freezing tight, fingers curling desperate into the sheets at her sides, Adam pulled away from between her legs and sat back on his heels, watching her body tremble with need. Jane blinked away the beginning phase of fog as her body realized it was left to be driven wild by the sensations he’d stoked, but not offered final reward.

She pushed herself up with her palm flat on the mattress and looked at him where he knelt, smiling knowingly and wickedly at her. Mischief flashed in Jane’s eyes – she wasn’t going to let him look so satisfied – and she pushed herself forward, practically leaping at him. His shocked expression was satisfactory, as was the grunt when his back hit the hotel room floor and he looked up at her, dazed and then amused, and then hungry all over again.

Jane sat with more purpose on his hips, feeling the length of his erection still trapped painfully in his fitted denim jeans. Her hands flattened over the button-up shirt he was wearing – he’d stripped his workman’s jacket off when they’d entered – and she slowly began to slip the buttons through each little hole and pushed the material open. She pushed her fingers through the faint dusting of blond hair on his chest and curled them, raking her nails down his torso and smiling as he sucked in a hard breath, groaned and pushed his hips up toward hers. Oh… she was going to enjoy tormenting him as much as he’d enjoyed doing it to her.

Using his body as leverage, Jane began to rub her hips over his, the stiff denim over his zipper pushing against her clit and making her moan. They may as well have been ruining his jeans, the way Adam was moaning and bucking his hips up to meet her strokes, likely leaking already for her. She didn’t tease him very long – at least not clothed – and only when their breaths were both ragged and he was shaking beneath her did she stop and slowly slide down his body. When she released the tension of his belt-buckle and undid the button and zipper of his jeans, Adam sighed in relief. His cock was swollen thick and had been painfully restrained.

Jane’s hands slipped beneath the band of his boxers and pushed the material down as her fingers slipped around his hard, throbbing cock. Adam moaned to feel her touch on his bare skin. Jane repositioned her body, putting either one of her knees on the other side of his, free hand flat on the carpet by his hip. Jane dipped and opened her lips over his leaking head, tasting the most intimate part of the man she loved. Her tongue swirled and dipped over the sensitive lip. Only the stretch around his girth kept her mouth from curling into a smile at the way he moaned and thrust greedily up into her mouth. The length of his shaft slid atop the bed of her warm, wet tongue.

His long-reach brought a hand to gather her hair, pulling it out of her face and holding it back so he could keep his chin at his chest and watch her bob up and down the length of his cock. She wet it with her saliva and where her mouth didn’t entertain, her fingers picked up the slack, curled around his shape and stroked with a soft squeeze of pressure. Jane dipped and ran the flat of her tongue down his length to his sac, sucking each of his balls in turn as Adam groaned and his muscles in his thick thighs tensed, showing their definition beneath fat. She curled the tip of her tongue and ran it along the taint, then up again so she could stretch her mouth around the head of his precum leaking cock and slide him back inside her mouth.

His fingers in her hair curled tighter and tighter. He jerked beneath her ministrations and leaked a tense curse in a strained whisper. His blond brows knit together and almost made him look angry with the concentration it was taking him not to cum. Adam’s hand in her hair pushed her down, forcing his cock to kiss the back of her throat where she gently gagged and the soft skin there wrapped tight around his girth. He moaned and dropped his head back, chest heaving with a needed breath.

Then, he let her go. Jane slipped off his cock, sucking back the saliva that’d gathered while she’d been held on it, and took a deep breath as she did. Sitting up on her knees she wiped at her lips with the back of her hand and looked down at the half-dressed, ravished cowboy laying beneath her. Adam’s dazed, but hungry eyes looked up her naked body and met hers. They’d been so caught up in how desperate for one another they’d been, it took them until now just to breathe and settle in with what was happening.

But nothing was going to slow down. Jane needed him too badly for that and he clearly felt the same. Adam curled his torso to sit up just enough to tug the long sleeves of his shirt off, uncaring how he tossed it to the ground beside them. He wanted his hands back on her too quickly to bother with it.

Crawling over the top of him, Jane lowered her hips as Adam grabbed the base of his thick, saliva-wet cock and pressed the tip inside her. His hand jumped up to the pinch of her hip and settled heavy, pressure guiding her slow down over the top of him. A moan poured low and long out of his mouth, thick and smooth like molasses. Jane’s muscles clenched tight around him as she adjusted to the feel of his girth stretching her again, head tilted back and mouth open as she voiced her pleasure. For a moment they sat, joined, and then Adam let up on her hip and Jane began to ride him.

Her palms pressed against his sweaty torso as she slipped up and down his cock, taking him in deep. Their hotel room was filled with breathy, heavy moans, soft whines from her lips and occasional shared whispers of their names, spoken with not only passion, but the love they’d found for one another. The stickiness of her wet slick covered her thighs and his hips, combining with the sweat pooled on their warm skin. Adam’s hands were still on her hips, fingers digging sharp into the layer of fat he could grip and pinch. Initially he seemed to hold himself back and let her take the reins, but a few thrusts in his need took over and his hips began pushing up to meet and quicken her pace. He buried his cock up inside her, grunting with each forceful shove of his hips and squeeze of his hands on her hips. She’d be surprised if she wasn’t bruised tomorrow.

Eventually he took over and Jane’s toes curled, nails raking into the fine blond hair on his sweaty chest, mouth locked open and eyes rolled back, body jerking with each hard-thrust Adam buried up inside her. He was going faster and faster, and they’d both built themselves to the brink of pleasure, making nirvana a quick and easy reach. Jane wished they could stay like this forever, no matter how exhausting it’d be. To be intimate with Adam in this moment, as close as two people could be, let all the worries of their future and the unanswered questions remain meaningless. The only thing that mattered was the two of them in one another’s arms.

“_Adam!_” She squeezed out from her tight throat and forced her chin down, eyes open, so she could look down at him.

Adam’s brow was furrowed hard, jaw clenched, and nostrils flared. The muscles in his arms bulged against the skin as his body tensed and he forced her to meet his driving hips. His eyes met hers and the desperate, feral nature of the beast inside him subsided just briefly, just enough to lock gazes and show her the man still existed behind the need. But there was even something in that – something in Adam losing himself and just fucking her raw and ruthless, that _excited_ her. This man with a heart of gold, who she knew from the instant she met him she could trust her life with, couldn’t help but be so needy for her that he lost all the civility when the doors were closed, and they were left alone.

“Adam!” She cried again, a ripple of pleasure shooting through her body and curling a knot in her lower abdomen.

“Yeah,” he grunted in a hot breath and pushed his cock up inside her soaked lips. “Cum for me, darlin’,” he could barely speak, his vocal chords were so tight. Instead, Adam’s words were a growl from that deep, barrel chest and it rumbled beneath her clinging hands. She hadn’t realized she’d drug red marks down his chest when she’d raked across his skin but saw them then in slightly raised lines.

“Oh, fuck, I’m –” her brows pulled tight inward and her body froze. A small cry squeaked past her lips as her brow furrowed. Adam grunted and plunged as deep inside her as his cock could go, balls sucked up to the base, legs shaking with the effort it took to keep from cumming too soon. Jane twitched, stilled, and cried her release in a mix between a whine and a long moan that filled the room to the ceiling. Those wet, warm velvet muscles wrapped around his driving cock clenched tight around him, pulling and coaxing him to his own release.

“Jane,” he managed, “I lo- **_nnngggghhh!!!_**…” Whatever he was going to say was stolen by the force of his orgasm. Adam’s vocals fell to moans spilling in tight together as his body jerked hard enough to nearly unseat her while she quivered and came herself. She felt the heat of his orgasm pouring inside her and knew she should worry – they needed to stop fucking unprotected unless they wanted to further complicate their already complicated situation – but only let a satisfied smile smear across her lips before she collapsed forward atop him.

One of Adam’s arms lazily lifted and rested around her bare back, squishing her sweaty body against his. The haze of gratification fogged their minds and they could only heave hot breaths that slowly melted into gentle laughter shortly after when they realized how crazy they’d been. All their plans – they’d get to the hotel, check in, and then go get something to eat and enjoy the town – had been derailed the split second they had a moment alone. They couldn’t even wait a few hours.

Adam’s fingers raked her hair away from her face, where it’d stuck to the sides with sweat. Jane turned to look at him and smiled warmly, matching the look he was giving her. Her heartbeat felt as though it skipped. He had a way of looking at her like he was in awe of her, like he was trying to memorize every pore in her skin and every subtle dip of her face, so he could remember it to perfection any time he wanted. 

“You’re perfect, you know that?” His words were slower, country drawl a little stronger, voice heavy with exhaustion as the adrenaline of their lovemaking gently eased from his body.

Jane laughed. “I think you’re bias.”

“Hmm,” he shifted her body carefully, still tucked hard inside her, both still sensitive. “Maybe.” He admitted, and his grin deepened.

“We didn’t even let you get undressed all the way,” Jane pointed out, rubbing her foot gently over his half-worn denim jeans. They’d only tugged them down his thighs enough for her to ride him.

“I didn’t think it was very polite to stop a lady when she’s on a mission.” He countered playfully, to which Jane laughed. He was good at that… being silly and making her smile and laugh. Sometimes her cheeks ached after they’d talked, he’d teased her to laughter so much.

“Good call,” she remarked, nodding firmly. “I definitely had no intention of being slowed down.”

“Mm, no you did not,” he said, voice low and deep, making a ripple of need tighten in her belly. How the hell did he manage to make her want him even after she was physically exhausted? His fingers skimmed up and down her spine in a delicate, comforting touch. “And thank God for that.”

Jane laughed softly again and then fell to just letting Adam hold her. She nestled her cheek against his chest, still lightly damp with sweat and slowly cooling, just as the rest of her was. Her eyelids threatened to drop after a day of travel and their lovemaking, but the night was far from over. She let her eyes close only to wrap her other senses more securely around Adam and soak in the sensation of being held by him. When she’d had to go back to university she hadn’t thought she’d miss being physically present with Adam so badly – they’d only spent a few days together in totality – but her heart had ached for this. She never knew being with anyone could feel like this.

“Hey,” he beckoned gently after a few more minutes of quiet, his fingers still tracing delicate patterns on her naked skin. “Do you still want to go out on the town? I don’t mind calling in room service and staying here all night if not.” His voice rumbled in his chest against her ear.

“I do,” she said, blinking her eyes open and readjusting to the lights they’d left on in the room. She glanced up at him and smiled. “I was just enjoying being in your arms again.”

He melted at that. “I was enjoying holding you again.” He dipped and placed a sweet, loving kiss atop her head and leaned back down. “But c’mon. Let’s shower, get dressed and head out. I got a lot of people to make jealous as I show my pretty little girlfriend off, and I’ve got a mind to spoil you a li’l too.”

“Spoil me? Why?”

“Because I said so.” His grin climbed a little higher in his cheeks, making them rounder and pronouncing the smile lines at the creases of his eyes.

“We’ll see about that.” Jane said, rolling her eyes, and slowly started to lift her pleasure-tired body from his.

“Mhm, we sure will,” he said and reached to playfully smack her ass as she turned, pushing his jeans off the rest of his legs and climbing to his feet to follow close behind her.

They were delayed again when, in the shower, slipping soap suds along each other’s bodies, Adam got hard again. His touch began to wander down her body and he stirred her again into madness quicker than she’d thought possible. His lips had placed warm kisses against her wet, clean skin, over her shoulders and between her shoulder blades as he wrapped his grip around her hips and sank his cock inside her again. Every high thrust slapped their wet skin together, his balls smacking against her cunt, and droplets of water from the shower stream flying around them. His low grunts and moans joined her high whines, bouncing and echoing in the acoustics of the tiny bathroom. When they finally finished showering and shut off the water, Jane’s palms had indents of the shower tile and the muscles in her thighs ached with exhaustion. She even had to hold on to his firm forearm for leverage as she stepped out, feeling wobbly-legged. He grinned, and she shook her head, mesmerized he’d had it in him so soon for a second round. If he kept this up, Jane wasn’t sure she’d be able to walk the rest of the time she was here.

She made a comment as such, which made Adam laugh that low, warm rolling laugh and melt into an almost sheepish smile.

“You’ve kept me a hungry man, darlin’. What can I say?”

At that she could only grin, and the pair of them finished getting ready before going out to see what Billings had to offer. They walked in the cold along the downtown streets and red-brick buildings near their hotel, peering in Christmas-decorated window displays hand-in-hand, cuddling up and stealing kisses just because they could. Any time Jane got particularly excited about something she saw, Adam encouraged her into the store and tried to talk her into letting him buy it for her. He was relentless and while she was able to argue her way out of a few gifts, they still ended up with a few bags by the end of the night. She managed to buy something for him, despite his best attempt to play down his excitement – a folding knife with a wood carved handle depicting a mustang running free on the range. 

They found a cute little diner to eat at, tucked inside beneath the twinkling, warm string lights wrapped around wood beams. They talked and talked, and Jane was amazed they never ran out of things to talk about, even after talking every day for month’s straight. It seemed neither could be without the other’s touch for too long. Jane would lay her hand on the table and Adam’s would blanket it, warm, secure and soft. The pad of his thumb would skim across her skin, inspiring goosebumps.

And when the night ended, and they lay, naked, tangled limbs beneath and atop the hotel comforters, Jane began to drift peacefully off to sleep, never once remembering that earlier in the day, Adam had nearly said something that she was sure was on the tip of her tongue, too. Every second that passed with him was going to make it harder and harder not to say. Every time he lifted her heart and made it race, the words were there, wishing they could be spilled. It drifted in her mind as her eyes closed, but she had enough sense not to say it. Not yet.

_I love you, Adam._

Adam sighed a content breath and wrapped his thick arm tighter around her, pulling her closer in. A smile formed sleepy across his mouth, eyelids closed and light lashes gently tickling his round cheeks. He felt more content than he had in years. Like everything made sense. That thought he’d had earlier – the one he’d almost said out loud – drifted across his mind, but he held his tongue and kept his mouth closed, too afraid to add pressure to what had been the perfect day they both so desperately needed.

_I love you, Jane._


	4. Trust Your Gut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam, Jane and Avery head to the nearby BLM holding facility to look at the mustang Adam promised Avery as well as a few one of Adam’s friend called him about, thinking he might make some good ranch horses out of them. Adam gets suspicious while at the lot, but ultimately decides to trust his friend. The pair still struggle and dance with the confession weighing on both their hearts. The one that’d make everything just that much realer.

“I’m getting a horse! I’m getting a horse! I’m getting a horse!”

Singsong from the backseat, little Avery had been squealing about her surprise nonstop from the second Adam told her. She’d rushed through getting ready for the morning, squealing with all the glee a young girl could have. Adam had joked that he should have promised her a horse a lot sooner, considering how well-behaved she was being as she helped her grandmother clean up the dishes and zoomed off to brush her teeth. Not a complaint came from her mouth at anything Adam asked. The only time she’d been mildly upset was when she found out the horse wouldn’t come home with them today – they needed to get into town and get the tree and had plans to spend the day decorating and baking. They’d bring the horses home later.

Jane glanced in the review mirror at Avery’s happy face and found herself smiling again. Avery wasn’t as suspicious of Jane as she’d been before, especially now that she’d jumped in on a few facetime and phone conversations over the past few months she and Adam had together. At some point Adam had told her Avery had asked if Jane was his girlfriend, and when she said she was, Avery had nodded matter-of-factly and told him that was good.

At least Adam’s daughter liked her. It’d take time for them to get any closer. The girl was used to only having her dad and her grandma and no one else. Jane was lucky she was already good with kids since her sister had so many little rugrats she’d always loved babysitting when she’d been back home. She knew they’d get there eventually, but there was always a nagging feeling of worry hanging at the back of her mind.

What if she and Avery got extremely close and it turned out Adam and Jane couldn’t handle the long-distance thing anymore? The girl’s mother had walked out when Avery was such a young age that she didn’t even remember her. It didn’t seem fair that she’d look to Jane as a maternal figure only to lose her, too. But what else were they supposed to do? Adam promised he explained their situation to Avery as best he could, and Jane knew the girl was smart as a whip… still, she dropped her eyes from Avery’s beaming face and felt her heart sink.

“Here we are,” Adam said, breaking into Jane’s thoughts at the right time, before they could devolve into worry and negativity. She glanced out the window at the large tall-fenced corrals and the herds of horses inside them. The pens were dirt – or mud and slush now, thanks to the cold Montana winter and recent snowfall – and while large enough to accommodate the herds living in them, they still seemed fairy crammed in Jane’s opinion.

This was her first time going to an off-range BLM holding facility. Most of the horses were older, more likely to be difficult to gentle than the younger stock pulled from the range. They spent their lives on holding facilities like these, trucked across the United States wherever space was available, hoping someone might come by, take pity and adopt them out. They couldn’t be released back on the range where they’d been born and raised, free spirits, so they became the governments property.

“Fork Springs isn’t a big facility,” Adam mentioned as he slowed the truck into the large gravel area that doubled as a parking lot and easy-loading zone for trailers. “They hold up to a hundred or so head at a time and get whatever is left over after the roundups. There hasn’t been a local roundup off the mountain in the last few years,” he explained, gesturing toward the far away Montana mountains where herds of wild horses still roamed. “The population has stayed down, so they haven’t had the jurisdiction.”

“Where do these horses come from?” Jane asked, watching the herds of horses in the muddy corrals.

“Wyoming mostly, but they’ll truck them in from other facilities that are overcrowded, too. I used to be good friends with the man who ran the place, but he retired about a year out and things are hit and miss with the new manager.”

Adam stopped the truck and parked, and Avery exploded out with all the energy of an excitable child, racing for the corrals with her curly, long blond hair snapping behind her. Adam called after her, holding the beanie she’d forgotten to tug over her head, but it was hopeless, she wasn’t stopping for anyone. Jane grinned and shrugged at Adam, who sighed and shook his head, playfully exasperated but very clearly happy to see Avery so excitable.

“Daddy where’s my horse at?” Avery asked as they walked up, her little arms looped around a middle fence pole and her feet resting on the bottom one. She was peering into the fence at the herd peering curiously back.

“She isn’t in this pen. Come on, I’ll show you.” He gently ruffled her hair before he tugged her beanie on, over her ears and started walking them along the fence line. 

“These are the stallions they gelded after they pulled them off the range.” He nodded toward the herd and Jane noticed a few had their hides decorated in scars earned by years of skirmishing. Others looked a little younger and their coats were less marred, likely fresh bachelors who hadn’t even managed to earn their own herd before they were driven in to the traps by the BLM helicopter. They passed another pen of what Adam claimed were the older horses, who had swayed backs from years and years of carrying and birthing foals, or who limped and favored aching limbs. They’d make good pet ponies for young children if someone had the patience for them, but that was about it. These, he said, were likely the ones who’d live out the rest of their lives on these holding facilities, trucked around in the hopes that someone would take pity and buy them. 

An old grey mare, her coat nearly pure white, perked dark-lined ears at them and watched with calm, gentle eyes. Her tail twitched back and forth, and she raised her head a little higher before rumbling a gentle whicker at them.

“That one,” Adam said, glancing over at Jane and seeing how intently she was watching the mare, “is actually Lucky’s mom.”

“Really? How do you know?” Jane frowned and looked at the old, sway-backed mare who was still watching them quietly, her coat damp from the earlier drizzle of snow that’d melted the minute it touched her hide.

“She was pulled in off the same range Lucky was, and one of the hikers that often hiked out there to photograph the wild horses seemed to think so. There’re people that follow these herds for fun and try to keep up with the bloodlines. It ain’t so easy sometimes knowing who the father is, unless he’s strong enough to keep his herd to himself and not lose sight of any of his girls, but it’s easy to link the mares. They shared a couple pictures with me they’d taken a couple years back when Lucky was a colt. I’ll show them to you when we get home.”

Jane wished she could take that mare away from this place. She was clearly older and had lived years and years out in the wild, roaming free. Now she was looking at a future stuck in a dirt and mud corral, shuffled around state to state. She wouldn’t make a good riding horse with her back swayed out, and she had likely been too wild too long to be easy to tame… but Jane wished she could buy her anyways. She deserved to live the rest of her life in a pasture, where she had grass beneath her hooves and trees to shelter her. Hell, Jane wished she could take them all and turn them loose on acres and acres of land, giving them the feeling of being free again for however long they had left instead of stuck in hard-dirt pens with too many other horses to count.

They kept walking on to the pen where Avery’s filly would be.

“Here she is,” Adam said as they stopped at a corral filled with mares and young horses. This is where they tried to sort the pregnant mares, he said, or the ones with foals who didn’t get adopted for whatever reason.

A little bay roan filly with a big star in the middle of her forehead watched from the safety of the herd, her half-grown mane laying awkwardly on her neck. She was a cute little thing and Jane was willing to bet she’d be gorgeous when she matured. Roans always had a way of growing their coats out intriguingly and often seemed to change shade throughout the season as they grew their fluffy winter coats in. Right now, she had a rich, chocolate bay head, inky black legs and the softest silver-bay body flecked in bay and black roan spots.

“She’s beautiful, Adam.” Jane said with wonder in her voice as she leaned on the fence.

Adam grinned. “Isn’t she? Looks sound, too. I know the stallion who sired her, he’s still out on the range and he’s thrown a few good mustangs I’ve had success training in the past.”

Avery hadn’t said anything yet. She was hanging on the fence, staring. The smile had slipped off her face. Adam and Jane exchanged worried glances and then looked down at her.

“What do you think sweetheart? Do you like her?” Adam asked, kneeling to peer at Avery’s eye-level at the filly looking dead-on ahead at them.

“Which one is her mommy?” Avery’s small voice asked.

Adam’s eyes shot up to Jane’s and then to the herd. “She doesn’t have one, sweetie. Gentry said she got separated in the mix-up. Before they realized what’d happened, her mom got adopted and was shipped off the yard, but she didn’t.”

“Oh,” Avery said and tilted her head, eyes still on the filly. “Didn’t the people who took her mama want her?”

“They didn’t.” Adam said, opening his mouth as if to explain why and then closing it with a sigh, clearly deciding it wouldn’t help Avery to know why they’d decided they didn’t want the filly. Jane guessed they felt they had no use for a young horse.

The filly took two slow, small steps forward, pulling herself from the herd and eyeing them with curious, bright eyes. She was a bold one, lifting her chin and jerking her head, blowing a huff of soft, white clouds into the air. Her ears flicked back toward the herd, toward the few who were curiously lingering at her hind, and then forward again at the crowd watching her.

“She’s like me. She doesn’t have a mommy.”

Adam met Jane’s eyes for a moment, and she saw the hurt there. It was the one thing he couldn’t protect Avery from or make up for. His eyes dropped to Avery’s profile and he reached out, gently rubbing his wide palm along his daughters back.

After another moment’s pause, Avery’s lips split into a wide smile. She turned to look at her daddy and leaped, arms around his neck, squeezing tight. Adam wobbled at the sudden weight thrown at him but steadied and squeezed his arm tight around her. He smiled up at Jane, then concentrated as Avery turned her head and whispered in his ear. That smile pushed higher into his cheeks and he stood upright quickly, bringing Avery up with him, to her delighted squeals and giggles. When the sunlight hit his eyes, Jane saw happy tears gathered in them. She wasn’t sure what Avery had said, but she assumed it wouldn’t be farfetched to know it was drenched in gratitude. Adam reached out to squeeze Jane’s hand as he set Avery down on her own two feet.

“Adam!” A man’s voice. Jane and Adam looked to see a man dressed in cowboy attire making his way toward them. He was smiling.

“Gentry, hey!” Adam grinned and reached to clasp hands with his in a firm shake. They pulled in for a quick hug, clapping each other on the back. Adam turned to catch Jane’s eye. “Jane, this is my friend Gentry. He’s a handler here at the facility and lets me know when horses come in that he thinks I’ll be able to make something of. Gentry,” he glanced at his friend and nodded towards Jane. “This is my girlfriend, Jane.”

“Finally, I get to meet the girl that stole Adam off the market.” Gentry grinned kindly at her. Warm. He was likely around Adam’s age, and while not as handsome as Adam (in her opinion), he still was attractive. Medium-length brown hair was pushed down beneath his Stetson, but the shade from the band couldn’t hide the brilliance of his green eyes, or the faint bit of freckles over his nose and cheeks. “Good for me, too bad for the ladies.” He winked playfully as he took her hand and brought it up to kiss her knuckles.

“Uncle Gentry!” Avery cried out and launched at him. Gentry laughed and took his hand from Jane’s to wrap both arms around her. “I’m getting a horse! That’s my horse!”

“Which one?” He asked, hoisting her up and looking out at the corral. Avery pointed madly toward the pretty little roan.

“That one Uncle Gentry!”

“She’s beautiful,” Gentry said with an appreciative whistle, “got a name for her yet?”

“You don’t just name a horse Uncle Gentry,” Avery said with a huff and a roll of her eyes, “they tell you their name when they’re good and ready.”

Adam’s eyes slid to Jane’s and they shared a smile.

“Well now I think I’ve heard that from someone else before.” Gentry said as he set Avery down and grinned over at Adam. “C’mon, you need to see these colts. You’ll make fine ranch horses out of them.”

Gentry led them to another pen with a young-looking crowd of horses. A thoughtful, slightly confused frown worked its way over Adam’s face as he leaned his forearm on the fence and used it to support his body. The other pinched his hip, and he tilted his head, tongue briefly sweeping his lips as he thought.

“What is it?” Jane asked as she came up to his side, glancing over the herd he was eyeballing. They looked like good horses to her. Strong, healthy, and at the right age to begin their training. Adam could turn any one of these colts into sturdy cattle pony and dependable ranch horse. He was looking at them like something was wrong.

“Huh?” He blinked and looked at her, then back at the horses. His shoulders rolled into a shrug as Gentry peered curiously at him. “Nah, it’s pry nothing. They just… look mighty healthy to be with the rejects and mix-ups. Normally I wouldn’t expect to get a colt that nice except on auction day with a fresh roundup and I’d be competing with other bidders, too.”

“Yeah,” Gentry agreed with a nod, “strangest thing.”

“Where did you say they came in from?” Adam asked, eyes still on the colts.

“Oregon.” Gentry said, “they had a round-up and these guys were left over, but their facility was too full to hold them. I reminded the new boss here you’ve got an eye for good horses and might be able to just buy them quick off our hands. That’s why I called you about them being here. We just shipped them in yesterday.”

“Huh,” Adam made a small noise and glanced back at the pen before pushing off it and nodding. “They are a handsome lot. How many is the boss gonna let me take?”

“You know Adam, we’re a little pressed for hay and it’s dead of winter, getting all four of them off our hands along with that filly would do us a lot of good here.”

“Alright,” Adam nodded and sucked the back of his teeth as he looked back at the herd. Four heads lifted and curiously watched the crowd that’d been standing, talking outside their pen. Their breaths streamed out in soft clouds of fog in the December cold. Jane had shoved her gloved hands into her pocket and was tucked into the scarf wrapped around her neck. Adam glanced at her and a flash of a smile eased the tension in his expression before he clapped his hands and reached to grab Avery’s shoulders, pulling her in close. She looked up at her dad with a smile.

“I promised these ladies a pit stop for hot chocolate and a tree from the tree lot and a night full of Christmas decorating and cookie baking, so draw up the paperwork for all four and the filly, I’ll come back with the trailer tomorrow and load them up.”

Gentry broke into a smile. “Will do Adam. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He reached out to shake Adam’s hand and tipped his cowboy hat at Jane. “Nice to meet you Jane. And you, little lady,” he beamed at Avery who smiled happy up at him, “I’ll keep your filly company all night until she can come home with you tomorrow, alright?”

“Thank you, Uncle Gentry!” Avery beamed and leaped toward him for a hug, which Gentry happily obliged, wrapping his arms around and squeezing her before letting her go and standing up straight. He tipped his hat again and turned off to head back toward the warmth of the main office while Adam, Jane and Avery made for the cab of the truck. Avery waved an exuberant goodbye at her little filly and babbled about her the entire drive back into town.

The rest of the day followed with holiday cheer like something out of a holiday film. Jane and Adam walked hand-in hand, their others holding warm to-go cups of hot chocolate, following Avery around the tree lot as she bounced and stopped and surveyed trees and jogged off to the next one. They shared little smiles, and, at one point, Adam jerked to a sudden stop that made Jane nearly spill her hot chocolate.

“Adam?” Jane said, confused at why he’d stopped in his tracks and looked at him, then saw his smile as he wiggled his eyebrows and gestured upward.

He’d stopped them under mistletoe.

Adam had pulled her in gently and laid a little kiss across her mouth, just starting to deepen it when they’d both heard a hard clearing of a little throat. They’d looked down to see Avery in her puffy jacket and beanie cap staring up at them as if she couldn’t believe them.

“We are on an important mission here people!” She’d scolded them with all the ferocity of a little girl on the mission for her perfect tree, “we don’t have time for kissing!”

“Sorry ma’am,” Adam said apologetically and stepped away from Jane. His already inward-dipped brows did a little more-so, the expression asking for pity from his exasperated daughter. “We won’t do it again. Cross my heart, hope to die.”

Eventually, Avery decided on the perfect, fluffy tree with thick sturdy branches she felt would stand up to the ornament hooks better. Adam nodded agreement and went to find an attendant who he could pay and then get to help him tie the tree atop his truck. Getting it inside his little ranch home had been fun, just the two of them with Avery shouting out directions and how they’d need to turn it to get it carefully inside. They’d done it, even if Jane had been damp with sweat and out of breath when it finally was settled where they agreed it’d look best.

After a small break for lunch they’d decorated the tree and wrapped twinkling lights around it, plugging it in and smiling as it lit up and twinkled on the myriad of ornaments. Avery had fun showing Jane all the ones she’d made and the ones that were her favorite. There was one of Adam on a horse with baby Avery sitting in the saddle in front of him. He was grinning ear-to-ear, and so was she. Jane held it for a minute and smiled fondly, then looked to see Adam’s blue eyes were softly on hers too.

What he had with Avery was so special. Jane was touched he cared for her enough that he wanted her to be a part of it too.

Hours later, after decorating the rest of the house, baking cookies and getting burgers, fries and milkshakes from the local hamburger shop for dinner, Adam gently poked Jane and nodded toward the other couch in the living room. They’d been watching a Christmas movie and in the soft light of it playing, Avery lay fast asleep, tuckered out from such a long, exciting day. She hadn’t stopped talking about her filly and everything they were going to do together. She even decided on the exact color of tack she was going to want, from halters to lead-ropes to winter coats to saddle pads: wintergreen.

Adam smiled and gently patted Jane’s knee, standing up and walking toward Avery. He scooped her gentle into his arms and she murmured, groggily waking up as her sleeping position was disturbed. “Easy baby girl,” Adam cooed gently as he turned to walk her down the hall, “I’m putting you to bed.”

Jane watched them go and smiled, reaching for the remote to pause the movie. She checked her phone, but her mind wasn’t on anything she read on the bright screen. When Adam came back, she glanced up at him. He was halfway across the living room back to the couch they’d been cuddled up on when she couldn’t hold it back any longer.

“What is it?”

“What’s what?” He asked, turning to fall back into his spot on the couch, pulling her under his muscled arm.

“What bothered you about those horses?” She’d been dying to know all day.

Adam huffed, a bit of a darker look crossing his blue eyes. It was the same one he’d worn when he and Gentry talked about buying all of them.

“It just doesn’t seem logical. They look too healthy to have been trucked from Oregon in this weather, and you know how freeze brands are sort of like a code that tells you which range the horses were pulled off?”

“Yeah,” Jane trailed off, her frown growing. The freeze brand the BLM burned into the mustang’s neck when they rounded them up were an identification code so that horse could always be traced back to that range. Adam’s tone was leading her toward something he seemed very, very serious about.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen an Oregon freeze brand, but those brands didn’t look like what I remember them looking like.”

“Did they look like any you recognized?”

He shook his head slowly, “No, they didn’t. It’s got me wondering what range they came from, when, and why. _And_ whether or not they were illegally pulled when a round-up wasn’t authorized.”

Jane’s stomach fell. Wild horse advocates constantly butted heads with the BLM, when the politician’s pockets were lined with cash from big cattle companies who benefited from the wild horse’s population being downsized. Political positions often with the ability to bend the rules in one’s own favor if that person was corrupt enough. Even a tiny government holding facility like Fork Springs was more than capable of doing some dirty work behind the scenes. Sometimes owners of slaughterhouses made under-the-table deals with those corrupt individuals in charge of these kinds of lots, buying up their horses for cheap and shipping them out of the United States.

She hoped something like that wasn’t happening here and tried to think rationally. Gentry. Adam’s friend. Adam had told her he’d been best friends with Gentry since they’d met on the first day of kindergarten. Gentry was a handler at the BLM facility, and Adam said he always kept him in mind when something nice came to the lot.

“But you trust Gentry, right?” She said gently, “he wouldn’t do anything wrong?”

Adam’s frown deepened and he shook his head, blowing a terse sigh. “I guess not. That’s what I keep trying to tell myself, anyways.” His troubled eyes looked down at her, curled up against his chest. Jane reached a lazy hand upward, gently pinching and curling one of his long blond curls. “I guess I should just be happy I’m lucking out with four nice looking mustangs. That guy who bought those five today might want them when I’m done. Guaranteed money.”

Jane could tell by his tone he was trying to convince _himself_ of everything good he was saying. His gut was warring with him. Jane had a feeling a man like Adam knew the importance of trusting those near instinctual reactions. But he nodded and sighed again, seeming to let himself sink in with what he’d said, and clapped his hand gently on her hip. He smiled down at her.

“Ready for bed, darlin’?”

There was something so simple and wonderful about the domesticity of that moment that Jane’s heart fluttered, and her voice caught in her throat. She beamed at Adam and nodded.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

And Jane enjoyed how it felt to help talk Adam through something troubling him in person, where she could play with his hair and look up in his handsome face as he thought. She enjoyed walking down the hallway, turning off lights behind them, passing Avery’s room quietly where she was still sleeping and going to his bedroom. She enjoyed slipping from her clothes and noticing how his eyes caught on her and he slowed down his own stripping, watching her reveal bare inch after bare inch. She enjoyed how, as she grabbed for her pajamas, Adam suddenly came around and put a heavy hand on her arm, pushing her clothes back down. He dipped in and kissed her, hands crawling greedy up her naked body.

They made love until they were a sweaty, trembling, panting tangle of limbs, kicking off the comforters to try and cool down. A quick clean-up later and they were back in one another’s arms, curled up underneath the comforter, and Jane had never felt more secure. She was someone who questioned the outcome of nearly everything and stuck to rigid plans she plotted years ahead. How had Adam flung her off-track to the point she didn’t have a plan for the first time in her life, yet when she was with him, everything felt perfectly right? Like**_ this_** was supposed to be her forever.

It didn’t make sense.

“You seem restless darlin’, you alright?” Adam’s sleepy voice asked husky at her back and Jane nodded.

“Yeah, I’m okay, it’s just taking me a little bit to get to sleep.”

“Alright,” he sighed, and a long-drawn-out pause until his next words told her he was easily falling asleep and trying to fight back out of it. “Do you not want to go to bed yet?” He mumbled against her ear. As if he could stay awake. Even now Jane sensed his breathing calmly slowing and knew without looking at him that his eyes were closed.

“I do,” Jane said and forced herself to yawn. “Go to sleep and stop talking to me so I can fall asleep.”

Adam’s body moved gently with a chuckle that was a heavy breath through his nose. “Alright darlin. Goodnight. I love you.”

Jane went rigid, her eyes popping wide open. Adam, on the contrary, drifted completely off to sleep, his breaths shallow and rhythmic. What? Her heart was pounding in her chest and blood rushed fast through her ears. It felt like she’d been struck by lightning.

He’d told her he loved her.

But had he meant to? Or was it just one of those things that he was so tired, he hadn’t really known what he was saying? Should she wake him up and ask? No… no… she couldn’t do that. She’d just see how he acted in the morning…

The thought of Adam being in love with her made her heart race and that piece of her that loved him want to scream and jump up and down on the bed with excitement. But the other thought, the rational mind that always reminded her why their future was already troubling told her it’d just make things even more complicated.

Jane slipped off to sleep some time later, her mind still not made up on what side she should decide to act with.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Yeah, just until the 28th. I can get them then.”

Jane was slowly coming to consciousness and heard Adam’s voice talking quietly outside the cracked-open bedroom door.

“Are you _serious _Gentry?” His voice rose a little bit. There was a long pause while Gentry talked on the other line. Jane could just hear the faint echo of his voice. When Adam spoke next, he’d lowered his voice again to a volume that was clearly meant not to disturb her. “Fine. Alright. I’ll drive up the feed for them today.”

He ended the call and stepped quietly back in the room, closing the door slow behind him. When he turned around, he saw Jane’s eyes were open on him.

“Morning darlin’,” he said and walked over to gently kiss her temple. Jane scooted over on the mattress so he could sit.

“Why was Gentry calling you so early?” Jane asked, glancing the clock. “Oh my god, is it really already passed ten? Why did you let me sleep in so late?” Her eyes swung accusatory back at Adam.

“You robbed yourself of sleep all semester, especially towards the end there. Your body needs the rest and you’re on vacation.” He said sternly and his concern and care for her touched her. Still, she wanted to be able to experience every second of this trip, not lose it to sleep. Jane wanted to get up at the crack of dawn with Adam and stomp through the fresh fallen snow from the night before to care for the horses. She wanted to make breakfast with him and be there when Avery woke up and came wandering out into the kitchen, lured by the smell of bacon frying in the pan. She wanted to lean up and kiss Adam on the lips and say: I love you too.

All she had to do was tell him right now, while he gently laid his hand on the curve of her hip atop the duvet and was looking at her with kind blue eyes. All she had to do was say it. I love you.

She sucked in a sharp breath and cleared her throat.

“You avoided my question,” she said, the coward, “you didn’t tell me why Gentry was calling you.”

“Oh,” Adam said and nodded, “well, that’s ‘cause I called him. I don’t want to get the horses until the 28th.”

“The 28th? That’s so far away.” Jane frowned, sitting up a little bit.

“Well, you, me and Avery will be taking off on the 19th, weather permitting, and come back on the 27th, weather permitting. I don’t want my mama to have to feed any more horses than what I’ve got now while she looks after them for me. It’s easier to keep them out at the holding facility until I’m back to take on the extra load of caring for five young, wild mustangs and getting them used to their new way of life.”

“Wait,” Jane shook her head, “what do you mean we’re going to be taking off?”

Adam looked at her and a slow smile worked its way across his mouth.

“I did something a little bad, but I’m hoping you’ll forgive me.”

“What did you do?” Jane was lost, staring at him, unable to think of a single awful thing Adam could have done.

“I stole your dad’s number off your phone and talk to him last night while you and Avery were decorating cookies and I was doing the evening feed in the barn.”

“You… talked to my dad?”

“Yeah, I asked him if he’d welcome two strangers for Christmas if I brought his daughter with us.”

A disbelieving smile worked its way across her mouth.

“What? Adam… are you serious?”

“Absolutely, darlin’. I know how important it is for you to be with your family for the holidays, and I know you say things would be easier if your mom got to meet me and know me, that maybe she wouldn’t be so hard on you. Well… this is our chance to see, I guess.” He looked briefly terrified, considering the very subject of trying to please her mother. “I figured it’d look good if I went out of my way to bring you home for the holidays… and I also figured Avery’s a cute little thing most days, so I’d bring her along for added bonus points.” A grin had worked its way over his mouth. “The single dad thing gets me sympathy sometimes, you know?”

“Oh,” Jane said, grinning as she leaned into him and looped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him down over the top of her. “You’re exploiting single parenthood for brownie points with my family, huh?”

“I think it’s a sound strategy,” Adam chuckled against her lips before placing a kiss against them.

“Wait, what about your mom? She’s going to be all alone?”

Adam shook his head. “She spends all day at the church as part of a group that cooks for the people in the community that can’t feed their own or don’t have anyone to spend the holiday with. I talked to her about it already and she’s right as rain. She thinks it’ll be nice for Avery to spend a Christmas with other kids her age, too.”

Jane was beaming. She couldn’t help it. Tears pricked at her eyes, touched by his thoughtfulness. Jane tugged him down harder and smeared her lips against his. She broke apart only when she needed air, their breaths mixing as their chests heaved. Their eyes met, both still caught in that wild, passionate light.

This was it. **_This_** was the moment she should tell him. Screw that she didn’t know where she’d get a job with her degree that’d be anywhere nearby. Billings was four hours away, but she’d take it. She’d take it just to be that close to him. Four hours was better than nothing. She’d been stupid to think it was too far. Maybe one day they’d suddenly think of something brilliant, some way it’d work for them to be together permanently. Until then… Jane couldn’t let him go. She wasn’t sure she could stand the heartbreak.

She took a breath, ready to say those three little words.

Adam’s phone starting ringing and he jerked in surprise, glancing down at the screen beside him on the bed. “Sorry, it’s my mom, give me a second?” Adam popped up, answering the call and stepping out of the room. His voice faded down the hallway as he walked further away, telling her something about swinging by once he delivered feed out to the wild horse facility. That was a couple hours’ drive there and a couple hours’ drive back.

Jane pushed the comforters off her legs and slowly stood, stumbling into the bathroom to freshen up a little before she wandered out into the living area. Avery was sitting on the living room floor, playing with little horse figurines. She smiled at Jane when Jane entered the room and Jane smiled back.

“Want to come play with me?” Avery asked, holding out one of the horses.

“Sure,” Jane smiled and walked around the couch to sit down on the floor and play with Avery’s little horse toys. The narrative had changed since the last time they played and now the pretty bay roan statue, though she was a few shades off the real thing and didn’t have the pretty star on her head, had taken on the role of Avery’s filly. Today was her first day being introduced to the herd and she was nervous and hoping everyone liked her. Jane fell easily into the rolls assigned to her by Adam’s daughter, but glanced up when Adam entered the room.

“Jane, can I talk to you for a second?” Adam nodded toward the kitchen and Jane nodded, setting the horse down she’d been making a fake, deep voice for and smiling at Avery before she went.

“I have to deliver feed up to Gentry for the horses then swing by and look at my mom’s sink. She says the water pressure is off. Would you be alright watching Avery?”

This would be the first time Jane and Avery would be alone. Jane sucked in a breath and felt her nerves rise.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Adam said gently, “you two can come along with me, too.”

“No,” Jane said, shaking her head. She had a feeling Adam didn’t want to be delayed on these errands and he was still suspicious of those mustangs at the facility. It would help him if she stepped up and showed she could do this part of the relationship too. “I can watch her.”

“You’re sure?”

“Of course, I am. We’ll be great. You go take care of business and maybe I’ll have something cooking up for you when you get home.”

“You know the way straight to my heart, woman.” He growled playfully and reached out, hand squeezing the curve of her ass as he pulled her in and laid a kiss to her lips. A playful little smack into the fat had her yelping softly and staring in playful offense at his wicked grin.

“Call me if you need anything, alright?” He said, brow quirking.

Jane nodded. “Of course.”

But she knew she wasn’t going to need to bother him. She knew Avery well enough now. It just _seemed_ scary because it was the first time she was the lone adult in charge of her boyfriend’s daughter. They’d be just fine until Adam came back home. Plus, Jane realized it’d be great distraction from her thoughts. The moment had been taken from when she was ready to risk it all and confess that she loved him, and it was clear he didn’t remember saying it the night before, which meant it could have been an accident. Jane hoped she wasn’t seeing something there that wasn’t, like because she was in love with him, she was convincing herself he was in love with her. It was better to wait. Especially because they were going to be meeting her family. This was going to be the first time she ever brought someone home she was dating. It was all so… serious.

She took a breath and smiled, leaning up to peck him gently on the cheek.

“Drive safe out there, cowboy. Your girls will be here waiting for you to get home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I have a LOT planned for Cowboy and the Mustang, so I promise there will be more coming in due time! I wanted to get everything finished by Christmas, but this is where I stopped. Hope you all enjoy! Thank you so much for the kind comments you've left so far. Sorry these two idiots can't seem to push themselves to the point of FINALLY admitting how they feel!


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